Vicissi Tempus
by coldie voldie
Summary: Life after the war is not what they had always hoped for. Hermione and Ginny are thrust into a position where they'll have to decide the upcoming fate of the Wizarding World. Is it truly better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all?
1. Prologue

Chapter One: Love

"When we hear the word love, some people think about their parents, some think of conviction. Some may think of happiness, or contentment, while others are scared of it. But one thing remains the same about people: we all want love. Everyone is different; we all enjoy different things, have different favorite food, and in the same sense, need different types of love. In the famous bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:4 – 7:"

'_Love is patient, love is kind._

_It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud._

_It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, and it is not easily angered._

_It keeps no records of wrong._

_Love does not delight from evil, but rejoices with the truth._

_It always protects, always hopes, and always preserves.'_

"Those four verses describe every type of love we have. Patience, and kindness. Contentment, humbleness, and a great deal else. But it does not describe the pain and anger that may come with it."

"In my opinion, love is like a contract; all those great deals, with all that fine print right below, and the words 'restrictions apply, results may vary'. If you apply the principle of that phrase, to everything stated in 1 Chronicles 13, there is serious conflict."

"One of my lifelong goals has been to write the most dramatic, heart-breaking romance novel ever, but when I wrote that goal down on my list of 'to-do's', I had no idea, that it would be my very own true story…"

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any characters created or associated with JK. Rowling. I own a few characters, and the main plot of this story.


	2. The Day it all Started

**Chapter Two: The Day it All Started**

Hermione sat on a stiff chair on the cold wet grounds of Hogwarts. Tears fell down her cheeks, as she thought of what she could do to change anything; to bring him back.

_Nothing will bring him back! He's dead! Get a grip on yourself!_

"Hermione?" a somber voice asked. Hermione turned to look at Remus Lupin. His sandy-blonde hair had a generous addition of gray, and he had lost even more weight since the last time she had seen him. He looked at her with the same mournful look she bore on her own face, until she broke the gaze.

"it's my fault, isn't it?" she asked quietly in a tone that suggested it was more of a statement than a question.

"Rubbish!" said Lupin. "you know very well why and how he died. It most certainly wasn't by any fault of yours."

"yeah," she answered quietly. "but, if I would have just left him alone, not broken his concentration, he might still be here." Lupin opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off. "you don't understand Professor. He loved me; he was in love with me! He told me with his dying breath."

"Hermione, don't make it your fault! It might seem that way, and if the circumstances were different, you wouldn't be saying that at all!"

"I know! If circumstances were different, he wouldn't be dead!" more tears splashed angrily down her face, and onto her sweater.

"you're missing the point, Hermione." Lupin said, starting to become angry himself. "You need to get a grip on yourself!"

"Don't you dare tell me what you think I _need_ to do!" she retorted, advancing on him with her hands shaking.

"Oh come off it, you know the only reason you feel half as bad as you do is because you didn't love him in return." He seemed to regret it as soon as the words left his lips. He turned away from her and let out and exasperated sigh that clearly sounded as though he were more upset with himself than anything. Hermione gaped at him, at a complete loss for words. "Look," he started slowly, making an effort to keep his temper in check. "He died to keep you alive, because he loved you; Maybe you didn't love him back, but that's not the point. The point is he wanted you live, not just to exist, but to be alive! Not so that he could hope to win your heart. To live in a world free from tyranny. Never forget that Hermione." Without another word, he walked away leaving her feeling, if possible, worse than she had before.

But he was right; she did not love him, she felt solely responsible for his death, and guilty at the fact that he had died for her without ever pursuing her or even knowing whether or not she loved him. Suddenly, she was brought back to reality; the funeral had started.

Seats had been reserved for the Weasley's, Lupin, and herself in the front of the crowd, seeing as how they were all the closest to him.

"The grief we all share in this most unfortunate loss, cannot be described in mere words. Not only was this young man an exceptionally bright wizard, but he was also a loyal, true, and honest friend. He was a beacon of hope to many of us during dark and unsure times, and he was a hero to us all. He will never be forgotten, and will live in our hearts forever and always. May you rest in peace, Harry Potter." Everyone stood and chorused: "_Rest in peace!"_, while Harry's coffin was lowered into the ground.

Hermione tried, but could take it no longer. The awful finality of everything, watching her closest friend being lowered into the ground to slowly decompose and never be seen again had pushed her past the breaking point. She sank to her knees shaking, tears falling, and cried for Harry.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I'm so sorry!" Everyone was watching Hermione now; and although some had the courtesy to look away, there wasn't a single person there who wasn't crying themselves and making a place for her in their hearts'.

As she started to shake, Mrs. Weasley put her arm around her and shared her tears of woe. "Shhh, Hermione, it'll be okay."

"How do you know? It isn't fair Mrs. Weasley!" She made doubly sure her feelings were understood by slamming her fist into the ground with every other word she spoke. "it's not fair! Think about James, Lily, Cedric Diggory, Sirius, Dumbledore, your husband, and your sons!" Hermione's words had a particularly strong impact on the woman, who had not so quickly forgotten the brutal death of her husband and youngest son only three weeks prior. "It wasn't fair for them! It wasn't okay then, and isn't going to get any better!"

The crowd continued to look on desperately as the grieving pair clung to each other and cried for those they loved.

* * *

**A/n: So you've been following me along since the beginning, (thank you so much to those of you who have) there's a lot of things in this story that don't really add up with the ending I have planned, so I've decided the best way to fix it is to rewrite everything. Start from scratch so to speak. So the same basic plot principals will be there, but the writing (at least I hope so) will be much better, and most likely much easier to understand. Lol. So bear with me, I've got a lot of great stuff headed your way =)**


	3. Vicissi Tempus Pt 1

Chapter Three: Vicissi Tempus Pt 1

A/N: Alright, originally when I wrote this, it was right before the Deathly Hallows book came out, so I made it so that all the shit hit the fan with Voldemort in the summer between the sixth and seventh year. However now, it will be based mostly off the seventh book with a few of my own elements thrown into it (obviously since Harry and Ron are dead, lol) so for future reference, Ginny is already in her 7th year, and McGonagall gives Hermione the option of having a 7th year, or progressing on with her career. Which would mean that Ginny is 17 and Hermione is 18 soon to be 19. There, now everything makes sense =)

* * *

Three days had passed since Harry's funeral, and so far things had not improved at all; in fact, they were getting worse. Mrs. Weasley was in a terribly depressed state of mind, and was trying (and failing) desperately to overcome it. Her remaining children were left to themselves to try and pick up the pieces of what their lives once were. Even Charlie could not bear the emotional burden of comforting his mother, and Bill and Fleur had not been seen in public since Harry's funeral.

Hermione wasn't any better than the rest of them. She hadn't eaten in about a week being too busy with her own grief, denied any form of nourishment offered to her, and had not slept for fear of the things she might see in her dreams. Everything she looked at reminded her of him, and being reminded caused her mind to play back certain memories of her two closest friends, which made her chest burn with grief. It was the worst of all vicious, never-ending cycles.

As anyone would expect, the _Daily Prophet_ had gone wild over the death of the Chosen One. They printed article after article about how Hermione had used and abused his kindness and compassionate personality, painting her as the seducing temptress that makes brave men fall in love with her, only to leave them rejected on the eve of battle. It was only when a furious Mrs. Weasley stormed into the Daily Prophet, using it as an excuse to outlet her pent up frustration, did they instead focused on her being the 'Last of the Golden Trio'. It was better than wild accusations of seduction, but she still didn't care all that much for the publicity.

On the day the Hogwarts letters were sent to everyone, Mrs. Weasley woke both Ginny and Hermione just barely after sunrise and said quite confidently that the time for despair was over, and they needed to focus on moving forward with integrity. Being up so early would give them plenty of time of prepare themselves mentally and physically for a trip to Diagon Alley. A few hours later, the three of them were cleaned, pressed, and fully prepared for the world ahead. With their supply lists and money bags in hand, they apparated directly outside the Leaky Cauldron. Mrs. Weasley looked around solemnly at first, but shook her head as though telling herself to keep her chin up.

"Ginny dear, what's first on your book list?" she asked as they left the brick wall of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Um… Standard Book of Spells Grade 7" Ginny said consulting her list.

"Right then, we'll go to Gringotts, and then we'll go to Flourish and Blotts, and finish off the rest of your supplies. Then, after we're done with our school shopping, we can go and do some actual shopping; Is that alright with everyone?" Hermione and Ginny both nodded in agreement. Harry had left everything he had to the Weasley's including his small, but certainly not inadequate fortune. Hermione knew that this would be the first time Ginny would be able to buy brand new clothing.

Their so far peaceful out was short lived however, for they had barely even made it out of the apothecary carrying the last of their school supplies when a small group of people crowded them and began hailing questions from every direction.

"Miss. Granger, what do you think your new term at Hogwarts will be like, with the absence of your two friends?"

"Miss. Weasley, do you feel angry at Miss. Granger for causing the death of you brother and previous boyfriend?"

"Mrs. Weasley, is it true that you arranged Harry's death, knowing that he stated in his will, that all his funds were to be directed into your bank account?"

"No, we-"

"I never wanted him to die!"

"How low will some people go, honestly!"

Ginny, was known for a temperament equaling to, if not greater than her mothers, and flared instantly at the incomprehensible offensiveness of the reporters.

"Does it make you feel good when you go to bed at night, that you just painted someone as a murderer, or an over jealous brat, or some type of scarlet woman?" she asked vehemently. "I hope you enjoy what you call a job. Because making money by stepping on people's face, rubbing your nose in everyone's business, and then printing articles that ruin their status as a person, just to earn a few galleons is really quite disgusting."

"Ginny, drop it" said Hermione, pulling her by the arm, but she pulled her arm out of Hermione's grip, and stalked off in an angry huff.

"How does that make you feel Mrs. Granger; used, betrayed, unappreciated?"

"Oh just shut up!" Hermione yelled irritably, following Ginny away from the crowd of reporters, and over toward her mother who was standing a few feet away, with a shaking hand over her mouth.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she said in an unusually high voice, leading them toward a corner of the street, where they all sat down on a bench.

"Mrs. Weasley, are you feeling all right? You don't look well." Hermione asked her; she looked faint.

"You know Hermione dear, I don't feel too well, now that you mention it." She placed the back of her hand to her forehead.

"Maybe you should go back to the house and lie down for a bit" Ginny suggested, taking hold of her mothers' trembling hand. Mrs. Weasley nodded.

"Yes, that sounds good. As long as you don't think you need me for anything." They both shook their heads. "All right, well here, I'll take those", she said indicating their bags of school supplies. "And you take this" she said giving both girls 30 galleons apiece. "No, keep it," she added, for Hermione had just opened her mouth to object. "Make sure you get all of your necessities first, and spend the rest on yourselves." Both girls nodded, smiling for the first time in what felt like years. "And _please_ be back before dark." Still smiling, the girls traded their school supplies for their galleons, hugged Mrs. Weasley, and waved to her as she disapparated.

"So Ginny, where should we go first?" Hermione asked her, as they strode down the cobbled road together.

"I don't know. I say we just get our school stuff and walk arou-" Ginny started, but stopped so abruptly, that had she not stopped talking Hermione would have left her there.

"Ginny?" she asked, walking back toward her, wondering what had caused her abrupt halt. She had passed a small shop called _Forma Curae. _

"What does it stand for?"

"I think it means beauty care." Hermione replied. "That's a very clever idea, putting the name of your shop in Latin." When Ginny looked puzzled, she said, "it draws the customer's attention, or at least, those who don't know what it means anyway."

"Well check this flyer out," Ginny said, pointing to a lavender colored piece of paper taped to the window of the shop. "This is the reason I stopped."

_Need a New You?_

_Are you tired of looking like the same old you?_

_Need some improvement? _

_Want to befuddle your friends?_

_At Forma Curae, we can make you look like a whole new person, literally._

_So come on by, and give us a try!_

_No appointment needed. _

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Ginny?" Hermione asked her, a mischievous grin on her face.

"If you're thinking about going in there so we can escape the Daily Prophet shoving accusations down our throats, and having some peace and quiet for a little while, then yes." Hermione smiled, and with a twinkle in her eye, led the way into the gift shop.

The inside, which was a lot bigger than it looked, was nothing like a muggle barbershop, or salon. Instead of three or four chairs in front of large mirrors, and a few chairs with hairdryers, there were about twenty black chairs that faced a completely mirrored wall. On the right-hand side, there was the exact same amount of chairs, only they were white. On either side of the door, there were two benches, and some magazines for while you waited. The back wall had a very large bookshelf, with books on do-it-yourself beauty spells, and an assortment of hair and skin care potions, all behind the register counter.

When Hermione walked in, Ginny following close behind her, she was surprised to see a rather large group of people inside. They were about to sit down on an unoccupied bench, when a very friendly looking witch greeted them with a warm smile.

"Hello!" she said in a very cheery voice. "I haven't seen you around here before, is this your first time?"

"Yes actually, it is" Ginny said, giving her a pleasant smile.

"Well, in that case, just follow me, and we'll talk about what you want done! Oh, and I'm Sara by the way."

"My name's Hermione," Hermione said indicating herself. "and this is Ginny."

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you both! Now let me see…" she said, scanning the room with her eyes narrowed until she spotted someone. "ah perfect; right this way. Hey Regina!" A girl with dark brown hair tied in a knot on her head, and sea-blue eyes turned, looking for the source of her name. When she spotted Sara, she smiled and walked over.

"hi!" she said with a smile bright enough to light up a room.

"Ginny this is Regina, and she'll be looking after you." Regina smiled and shook Ginny's hand. "Reg, this is her first time here, so I'm sure you know what to do." Reg smiled.

"All right Ginny, follow me and we'll find an open seat." She said leading Ginny towards an open chair while Sara led Hermione to the one right next to them, the occupant having just left.

"so, Hermione, what kind of look were you thinking of?"

"Well," Hermione said, not actually sure what she was even wanting for herself. "what kind of things can you do?" Sara chuckled.

"well, just about anything." She leaned back against the mirror looking thoughtful, and crossed her arms. "I can change anything about your appearance with well, the exception of your physical traits like your body structure, weight, things like that. I can change your hair, and eye color, skin tone, the physical structure of your hair, curliness, waves, that sort of thing."

"Wow," Hermione said looking stunned. "I didn't think there would be so many options. Is it permanent?"

"Indeed it is, if you want it that way." Sara replied, looking quite cheerful and at ease from her position against the mirror. "and its all very easy to change if you get tired of your look; there's some books behind the register with some very simple spells like those I will be using today."

"Excellent." Hermione replied.

"Well, shall we get to it, then?" she said, clapping her hands together and beaming enthusiastically. Hermione nodded. "what should we start with?"

"hmm…hair." Hermione replied. "maybe we could make it darker? "

"how dark?"

"I don't know; why don't we just do it gradually. Just do whatever you think would look good." Sara nodded and waved her wand and Hermione's once busy brown hair, became _darker_ busy brown hair.

As she watched her hair darken shade by shade, she felt a strange sense of familiarity about her appearance. As though she had seen herself, or someone who greatly resembled her, in a long lost memory; like a picture in a book, or a photograph of a young group of joyful people hugging each other and laughing merrily…

"Well that's about as dark as dark gets," Sara said, snapping Hermione out of her reverie. "but I have to say, it really fits you!" Hermione noticed her hair for the first time; it was as black as black could be, and shone with the reflection of the light in the room. She smiled. "now maybe just a little of this," Sara said waving her wand. "and a little of that." She waved it once more.

At once Hermione's newly colored hair went from untamable bush, to perfect ringlet waves spiraling down from her head. With the second wave of Sara's wand, her shoulder length hair doubled in length and fell perfectly at her waist. They enjoying playing around with her facial features, changing the shape and length of her eyebrows, and various eye colors and shades until finally settling on a brilliant crystal light-blue eye color.

An hour and several galleons later, both Hermione and Ginny emerged from the beauty shop, barely looking like themselves at all. Ginny now had deep, rich, cherry wood colored hair that had been lengthened to just above her elbows. Her eyebrows had been shaped with more of a curve, but her eyes were still a dark jean-blue.

"so you mean that all this is-"

"permanent, yes!" Hermione said happily, as they walked off down the street together. "my hair will forever grow in black, and my eyes will forever be blue, unless I decide to change it!"

"this is so cool! Oh, but my mother is going to freak out." Ginny said. Hermione frowned.

"Well, let's hope she likes it," she said in a low voice. "I think that she off all people will understand why we did this. Hey, what do you say we go in here, just for fun?" she pointed at a fortune telling store, where there was an advertisement for _'your Crystal Ball reading. What's in your 'future?_ Ginny smiled and they walked in.

The shop reminded them instantly of Professor Trelawney's classroom at Hogwarts. It was roasting, very dimly lit, and it smelled strongly of burning incense. The noise of their entrance caused a woman behind the counter to jump, thus breaking the teacup she was drinking out of.

"oh, I'm sorry!" Hermione said as the woman cleared her mess.

"no, no! not to worry! What can I help you with dears?"

"Oh nothing, we're just looking around" Ginny replied, smiling back at her in a friendly way.

"Don't hesitate to ask me for assistance with anything should you need it!"

Ginny smiled at her again, and turned to browse the shelves, Hermione barley hiding a snicker. She had to admit though there were some very interesting looking books, a good majority of them were all pointless books about knowing what's going to happen in two years, and when you want to be extra careful around hot things. Between two bookshelves, there was a deep purple curtain in a doorway with a sign above it, that Ginny was already reading.

Crystal Ball Readings

_Would you like to see what lies ahead?_

_(Price upon request)_

"What a bunch of codswallop," Ginny said, frowning. Hermione nodded.

"Absolutely". She said, a slight smile on her lips"

"Want to try it?"

"Absolutely". Hermione asked the witch at the counter for the price, and paid her. They then walked through the purple curtain, and into the room beyond. This room seemed, if possible, even darker. There were no windows, and the few table lamps had dark shawls on them. When they walked through the curtain, a stream of light was briefly visible on the floor, before it vanished again. Hermione looked around, slightly apprehensive, given that the room was almost pitch black. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, a voice spoke from the corner of the room:

"Sit down" her voice was oddly low, and was slightly raspy, as though she had been screaming for a good half hour. Hermione and Ginny sat, feeling even more nervous than before. "Hmm, let's see now." She drew a breath through her nose, and exhaled through her mouth. For a few minutes, all she did was mutter with her eyes closed, hands moving over the crystal ball. Finally, she opened her eyes and gazed into the foggy depths of the ball. As they watched, the woman's brow furrowed in concentration, Hermione thought that surely crystal ball readings were not supposed to take _this_ long. A few more minutes passed, the woman's wrinkle becoming more pronounced in her effort of concentration, until quite suddenly, the woman stood up and said "Out! I can not get a clear reading, out!"

"Is there something wrong?" Hermione asked, startled.

"No, it is… bad luck to converse with people who have bad readings".

"Well, what happened? I mean it couldn't have been _that_ bad" said Ginny, arching an eyebrow. The woman shook her head. "Well, can you at least say something about it?"

"Vicissi Tempus"

"Excuse me?" Hermione said, but the witch had already turned back to her shadowy corner where they had first seen her. Hermione glanced at the crystal ball once more, and saw a face looking back at her. The man she looked somewhat familiar, though she couldn't place where she'd seen his face before…

* * *

"What have you done!"

Hermione, and Ginny had finished their afternoon in Diagon Alley and upon their return, had forgotten to warn Mrs. Weasley about certain differences in their appearance. Consequently she was quite surprised and was, unfortunately, not taking it so well. It took almost an hour to explain everything to her, seeing as how she was already in an angry huff.

"does it make more sense now, Mum?" Ginny asked her, fixing her with a hopeful gaze.

"Well of course it makes sense! If I was your age I would do the same thing; that doesn't mean I like the fact that you did!" Ginny smiled anyways and gave her mother a hug. "oh! Come here you two! This is your last night here, and I don't want to be angry with you. I'm going to miss you two so much!" Mrs. Weasley said, pulling them both into a bone crushing hug before sending them off to bed.

**So, I hope you enjoy my re-written chapter. I feel like it makes more sense. Please review! =)**


	4. A Different Point of View

Chapter Four: a Different Point of View

By the following day, Hermione and Ginny were packing their things. Mrs. Weasley was needed on an important mission for the Order, and the girls could not stay home by themselves. Even with Voldemort gone, there were still several masked Death-Eaters out there, who would love nothing more than to have the last member of the last member of the trio, and the only Weasley girl in their merciless clutches. Which is why the two girls were stuck packing at the very moment; they were to stay with Remus Lupin, until term started in October.

"Where does Professor Lupin live, anyway?" Ginny asked, while folding a pair of dark blue jeans.

"I think I heard him telling Tonks that he was hoping to move into a house he had in Chestnut Circle." Said Hermione, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"Chestnut Circle? You mean the one that's right by…"

"Godric's Hollow, yeah. Unless you know of any other Chestnut Circles" Ginny got an odd look on her face.

"Why would he want to move back there, so close to where everything- where it all fell apart?"

"I don't know. They probably did lots of memorable things there. I mean think about it, nobody knew Wormtail was bad until after they died so, five friends plus one baby equals lots of memories." Ginny nodded, plunging them into a thoughtful silence for the rest of their packing.

Just as Hermione had started to levitate their trunks downstairs, Mrs. Weasley came upstairs, looking slightly ruffled.

"I need to be there three hours earlier!" she gasped. "I have to leave now!" and she bustled about, making sure that they had left nothing in the room. "I'll send your things ahead of you, now quickly go and make sure you've got everything from the house."

The girls hurried through the house, looking for anything and everything that might be theirs. After five minutes had passed, Mrs. Weasley shuffled them towards the kitchen and said, "hold on tight to my arm", but no sooner had they touched her arm, did they find themselves looking at a beautiful white house, with light blue trim, and an incredible stained glass door. There was a wooded lot in the right-hand side that wrapped around to behind the house. The front yard had a stone walkway to the front of the house, and the woods hid a gorgeous garden entrance into the back yard, where there were more gardens, with a fountain and a swinging bench that was covered in ivy so as to blend in with the tree behind it.

"Well, here you are." Mrs. Weasley said rather harshly, as though scolding them for admiring the house's beauty. "Good-bye, be safe, be good, and please don't leave after dark." She said, hugging them in turn. "I'll see you at Christmas" the girls turned to face the house, but when they turned back around, Mrs. Weasley was already gone.

"She's so polite when she's in a rush," said Ginny sarcastically, as they walked to the front door.

"Oh no!" Hermione said, coming to a realization. "Your mum didn't tell us how to get in!" Ginny frowned.

"Well there must be some way"

"I have an idea," said Hermione, moving to stand inches away from the door. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" she said it so quietly, that Ginny could barely hear her. She smiled as the lock clicked open, and Hermione walked inside.

"And I thought the _outside_ of the house was incredible!" Ginny said, completely awestruck.

The house itself had two stories, and was much larger on the inside than it appeared. The entryway led to the very center of the living room, where a handsome couch surrounded an enormous fireplace. Past the living room to the right, was the kitchen, with a large breakfast bar, and an island in the middle. Through the hallway, was the dining room, with an almost room length mahogany table, and the room was filled was filled with shelves upon shelves of priceless china, crystal, and other expensive dishes, some bearing the initials S.B. & E.G. and some bearing different family crests.

"Do you think it's Sirius?" Ginny asked, looking at Hermione with mild interest, and motioning towards the monogrammed china.

"I don't know. We would've known about him having a wife, wouldn't we?"

"Yes, I suppose so. It must be someone else's then." Hermione frowned. "What?" Ginny asked her.

"I don't know, who else could it be, though? It seems rather odd…"

"Oh well, we'll ask Professor Lupin about it later." Ginny said moving on to the next room. "Wow!"

Hermione turned around to see what Ginny was looking at, and saw , through the doorway of the dining room, a beautiful staircase, that branched out on either side at the top, making a bridge across the room. It held a great resemblance to the Grand Staircase at Hogwarts. Hermione moved into the room and couldn't help but exhale at the sheer beauty of the room. It was magnificent, and must've been the largest room in the entire house. It was filled with paintings and rich colors on tapestries, and directly across from the staircase, a banquet table that was nearly the length of the room itself. Behind the large table, there was one of the largest windows Hermione had ever seen. It went all the way up to the ceiling, which must have been at least fifteen feet high, and had beautiful red drapes

Hermione and Ginny started exploring the dining room, looking at the different dishes, silverware, and glasses, all safely residing on their shelf, and a thick layer of dust that covered mostly all of them. Some of them, like the ones with initials on them, had been cleaned recently.

"Oh my gosh!" Ginny exclaimed, from a far corner of the room. She was standing in a hidden doorway, looking stunned. "Hermione, come look at this." As Hermione made her way toward her, Ginny moved aside to let Hermione look inside the room.

She gasped; the room was an _enormous_ circular library, with books from the floor to the ceiling on every subject you could possibly imagine. The shelves were designed to accommodate large wrap around platforms in between them with ladders leading to the next platform. In different sections if the wall, there were large windows, which let the light pour in. There was an assortment of comfortable looking chairs and the floor, and two on each of the platforms, accompanied by a small circular table.

"This is incredible!" Hermione said looking at Ginny bearing a similar look of awe.

"I know!" she replied, a smile lighting her freckled face. "Come, look at this!" she said, and led Hermione over to a bookshelf that was sitting behind a desk, separated from all the others. On it, were photo albums, journals, scrapbooks, and a number of other books, that had no name on their spines.

"Should we look at them?" Hermione asked. Ginny looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I don't know, maybe we should wait until we at least ask Lupin."

"Yeah, I agree. But it's not like we wont be bored, I mean look around you!" Ginny laughed.

"Good point, well, I say we find an interesting book, and start reading"

* * *

Remus POV

Remus Lupin was not a complicated man; he had a simple quiet life, a nice house, and now a good job. About a month or so before Voldemort's downfall and Harry's death, the Ministry of Magic offered him a job in the Department of Mysteries, as an Unspeakable. The job pay was spectacular, and the Minister had made special accommodations for his condition.

When he first arrived, everyone was completely devoted to finding a way to get rid of Voldemort, but now that Voldemort was gone, he had turned his attention to uncovering the mysteries of the Veil. The ministry was under the impression that a great power was hidden beyond it killing anyone that went through it, but Lupin and many other Order members were convinced that indeed a great power resides beyond it, but not like they thought. Remus was convinced that Sirius was alive beyond the veil, and only needed to be found, and brought back. They had gotten so close to figuring it out now that Remus was sure he would be walking home with Sirius tonight.

"Sir?" said a voice behind him, just as he entered the room.

"Yes, Phillips?" Remus replied to his assistant, Joseph Phillips.

"Sir, I stayed here late last night, to do more research on the veil, and I made some startling discoveries" Remus nodded. "Well, it looks as though beyond the veil is…is the Land of Souls."

Remus stopped dead in his tracks. "What? Are…are you sure?"

"Positive".

If beyond the veil really was the Land of Souls, then getting him back would be even easier than he thought, given that Sirius was alive on the other side…

"Sir? Are you alright?"

"Are you kidding? I haven't been this excited since I got my O.W.L scores back!" Phillips chuckled, but Remus, whose thoughts were racing faster than a speeding owl, paid him no heed. "Come, we have much that needs to be done! Tell the Minister about your discoveries, I'll send a note to the Auror Office, and tell them to get the first ghost they can find. Then I want you to go to level two, to the Wizengamot Administration office and tell them we need to hold an immediate trial for Sirius Black"

"Yes sir!" Phillips said before running out of the room. Remus turned to the veil, which was now in front of him, and said quietly:

"Hold on Sirius, it'll be over soon dear friend".

By the following hour, Remus and Joseph had three Aurors, a ghost, and the Minister in company. A team of two or three healers was there, just in case, and a reporter from the _Daily Prophet_ was furiously taking notes on a clipboard, while a photographer was taking pictures like crazy, sending flashes off so fast it was almost like a strobe light. Remus beckoned the ghost forward.

"Alright, I need you to go through the veil, and bring back a man named Sirius Black," Remus told him. "He may or may not be unconscious, if he is, find some way of waking him up." The ghost nodded, and drifted through the veil. Remus paced nervously around it, wringing his trembling hands.

"I sure hope this works Joseph," he said, his voice failing him shortly.

"Me too" Joseph replied, casting a wary eye at the crowd of people who were there.

Around five minutes later, a great burst of wind came from beyond the veil, causing it to flap quite elegantly, and a man flew from it's depths, landing on his back. A man with black shoulder length hair, and deep sunken silver-gray eyes.

"Sirius!" Remus ran forward to his fallen friend, and checked for a pulse. It was there and strong too. The Healers hurried forward, and immediately started to help him, trying to thwart his attempts to sit up.

"Remus! Remus, what happened?

It was three hours since Sirius had been rescued from behind the veil; the Healers did a spectacular job on healing him, and the Wizengamot cleared him of all charges. They gave him a very large sum of money to compensate for being wrongly accused, and waved his fee for being an unregistered Animagus.

"What can I say Padfoot, we couldn't live without you," Remus said, smiling at him. "Come on, let's go get a bite to eat, and I'll answer any questions you have about the past two years".

"Two years, _two years!_ I can't believe I was gone that long!"

"We all thought you were gone, Padfoot. It was hard. Especially for Harry, Ron, and Hermione." At this, Remus' heart became heavy. Sirius did not know Harry had died yet, and he did very much not want to be the one to tell him. Mentally kicking himself for letting Harry's name slip, he searched for another topic, but could think of nothing. He settled on feigning normalcy until he could face the inevitable. "Harry nearly killed Bellatrix, he was so mad. He, uh, had a hard time accepting it. Dumbledore- he had a hard time with it too…"

"How is he? Dumbledore I mean; I never saw him in the Ministry?" Remus' heart became, if possible, even heavier. He had forgotten about Dumbledore too.

"He- well Sirius, he died" Remus said, stopping and staring at the ground.

"What?" Sirius said, in complete shock, his mouth open in horror. "When? How? Of all the people, I never would've guessed… blimey, he was the greatest wizard I ever…"

"June of last year, at the school, he and Harry were on a mission, and when they got back to the school… it was the Dark Mark. No one saw it coming; it was the middle of the night. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were almost out of luck by the time the Order got there… it was…terrible". They found a table with a few chairs, outside a shop and sat down. "it's been a busy couple of years…"

"No kidding.." Sirius commented. "So tell me what happened. I want to know everything."

"Sirius, I don't think now's the best time to have this conversation." remus said, avoiding his eyes.

"Why? I need to know what happened. Before it's as a surprise from someone else." Remus didn't know how to proceed. Should he tell him everything? Should he wait till Sirius was fully recovered to let him know that his godson, one of the last things he held dear to his heart, was dead? He had already been through so much in his life, and Remus dreaded being the one to always deliver the bad news.

"Please, tell me what happened. I- I want to know." Sirius looked Remus squarely in the eye, a determined look on his face. Remus nodded, and took a deep shuddering breath.

"Well, right after you fell in the Veil, Fudge could no longer deny Voldemort's existence, and everything changed. Fudge resigned, people went into hiding, a lot repeating what happened the last time. Harry and Dumbledore did a lot of work together over the school year, and right before term ended they went off together on some important mission. When they got back, Death Eaters were already at the school." Remus paused. "On the day that Bill and Fleur married, Voldemort finally gained control of the Ministry and launched an all-out attack on the Weasley's house. Harry, Ron, and Hermione vanished that day, and I didn't see them for nearly a year."

"An entire year?" Sirius interjected. "You're kidding right?"

"Well a few months shy of a year." Remus said. "One day they show up in Hogsmeade unannounced, somehow managed to slip past the Death Eaters who were stationed there and headed for Hogwarts for God only knows what. Voldemort found out they were there, and launched a full scale attack on the castle. There was a lot of casualties." at this point Remus looked down at his hands.

He had reached the part of the tale he had been dreading. The part where Harry died; and he had no idea how to say it. He looked up and caught Sirius' eye. He looked at Remus intensely, as though reading him, suddenly he expression was pained, and he turned his head away and looked at the ground.

"He was steadfast and valiant to the end, Sirius. You would have been so proud." He could hear the sharp intake of breath as Sirius' fears were confirmed. "He finished Voldemort off, and some of the Death Eaters, as you can imagine, got angry and lashed out, killing everything in sight. He could hold his own against some of the toughest Death Eaters, but when it was all over I found him…in Hermione's arms."

"Was it quick, at least?" Sirius asked, still looking away from Remus. He hesitated.

"I…don't think so. He got hit with a…uh…pretty nasty curse. He bled to death."

Sirius nodded and took several deep calming breaths.

"So she loved him then?" he said in a sad voice.

"What, Who?" he asked, completely clueless. "Oh, Hermione! No, she wasn't _in love_ with him by any means, but she loved him _dearly._ She's absolutely devastated. She told me at the funeral that it was the last thing he said to her. She blames herself, no doubt."

"I always knew he fall for Hermione." Sirius commented, trying to keep things normal. "So how was Harry able to kill Voldemort? I thought he had made himself immortal."

"I believe the only person alive who knows the answer to that question is Hermione."

"Well doesn't Ron know?" he asked. Remus cleared his throat.

"Ron is gone as well. So is Arthur Weasley."

"I see why you were so hesitant to talk about this." Sirius said, running a hand through his hair. "it's a lot to take in for one day." Remus chuckled awkwardly.

"yeah. Listen Sirius, this is still pretty recent and fresh in everyone's mind. It all happened just last week, so try to be careful what you say. Especially around Hermione; she's quite hysterical these days."

"I understand."

"Well," Remus said, standing from the table. "Would you like to go home? I'm afraid that Grimmauld Place was left to the Weasley's when Harry died, so for right now you wont be able to use it just yet since Molly is abroad." Sirius snorted.

"That's more than alright. You know how much I hate that place. "You don't mind if I stay with you then? Where do you live now anyways?"

Remus hesitated, and once again cleared his throat rather awkwardly. "Chestnut Circle."

Sirius laughed humorlessly. "Well, when it rains it pours, I suppose."

"I should probably warn you that I've agreed to keep watch on Ginny and Hermione for Molly while she's away for the Order."

"Excellent. I would love to see another familiar face." Sirius replied showing a true smile. Remus hoped that his strange and rather unexpected aura of calm that he was expressing was not simply the calm before the storm.

* * *

Hermione and Ginny had spent all day pouring over the interesting books in the library, and they weren't about to stop soon. It was only when Ginny noticed that the sun was setting, that they stopped for dinner. While Hermione made dinner, Ginny unpacked their things, cleaned up their rooms a bit, and then was supposed to go downstairs to clean the dusty dishware, and set the table for dinner. She had found a very interesting book in the library about a dragon's adventure, and immersed herself in it, while working.

A scream came so suddenly from the kitchen, that Ginny drew her wand and peered cautiously around the doorframe. Seeing it was clear, she headed for the source of the scream, carrying a wineglass and rag in one hand, her wand in the other. The sight that greeted her however, was the last thing she would have ever expected.

* * *

Sirius and Remus apparated to the street directly in front of Sirius' old house.

"Shall we go in?" Remus asked leading the way up to the door.

"Yes, I'd rather not sit out here." Sirius replied, looking at the garden path on the side of the house with an odd look on his face, before turning back and following Remus.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Remus said quietly to the door, and Sirius chuckled to himself.

"After all these years," he said. "you've never changed it?"

"Never." Remus replied, eyes twinkling. "I only just moved in here a few days ago." Remus said, opening the door, and stepping onto the threshold. "Oh, I guess we should probably be quiet. They might be sleeping. I didn't think about how late it was."

They walked quietly over the doormat, and Sirius closed the door behind him so quietly, Remus could hardly hear it. A delicious smell immediately wafted over to them, and Sirius's stomach grumbled loudly.

"If your stomach makes noise like that for much longer it'll wake them up for us." Remus said, smiling.

"I wonder if they found the library yet," Sirius asked, ignoring the rumbling. "Ten galleons says Hermione faints when she does see it. If she hasn't already, that is".

As they approached the kitchen, Remus lit the living room chandelier, with a wave of his wand. Hermione, who was in the rather large pantry, did not notice them until she came out, humming slightly to herself, and carrying an armful of dinner ingredients. Upon seeing Sirius and Lupin, she screamed, jumped dropped everything she was carrying, and covered her mouth with her hands.

Remus not believing his eyes gasped and clutched the breakfast bar, Sirius gave a yelp. _how is this possible?_ Remus thought wildly to himself. _How can she be here? Oh God, Sirius-_

"Evangeline?" he heard Sirius whisper, looking terrified and thrilled in the same moment.

She either did not notice or did not care what he had said, and at the same time, they ran toward each other, she jumping slightly, and crashed into Sirius, hugging him tightly.

Sirius stroked her curly black hair, and closed his eyes.

"You were dead!" She cried, tears of joy splashing down her face. "How did you come back!"

Remus stood in shock. The questions were reeling through his mind like never before. But something was wrong with this picture, he knew it. He needed to understand but he couldn't. over twenty years it had been since he'd seen her face, and she hadn't aged a day. What happened next however, confirmed his suspicions that had just began bubbling in the back of his mind. Sirius had just put her down and cupped her face in his hands, wiping her tears away when there came the crashing sound of breaking glass. Another woman came into view from the shadows of the hallway running at top speed, and crashing into Sirius with such a force, that he actually stumbled a little.

Remus stopped breathing.

She broke away from Sirius and walked towards him looking as radiant and beautiful as she ever had. A tiny nagging voice in the back of his mind seemed to speak up and tell him that he should be cautious, but he shut it away without even thinking about it. Without a second's hesitation, he pulled Ginny into the warmest hug of her life. He could have died in that moment and never noticed. She slackened her grip, left him feeling colder than he ever had where her body had just been, and went over to help clean up the many sauce cans that had been dropped in the excitement. With the cans safely on the counter, the raven-haired young woman turned to Sirius and opened her mouth to say something, when Remus interjected quickly: "Not just now, let save all questions till dinner" She nodded, gave them a sweet smile, and returned to her cooking while Remus practically dragged Sirius to the dining room.

A/N: I basically rewrote this entire chapter, lol. I hope it's a thousand times better than before, but I wont know unless you tell me! =D

Coldie Voldie


	5. Vicissi Tempus pt 2

Chapter Five: Vicissi Tempus Pt 2

Sirius POV

Her face. It had been so long since he had seen her face, held her in his arms, even touched her. She was back, and she was here with him. He wanted to hold her and never let go, kiss her and tell her how much he loved her, but most of all, he wanted to talk to her. He felt so happy, so wanted, so _loved_ in that one moment, that when Remus pulled him away he was a little more than upset.

"Hey, what's this about?" He asked irritably. He hadn't seen the woman in over twenty years, and he had more than one bone to pick with her. Remus looked at him, a mournful expression on his face and shook his head. "Sirius, I don't think it's really them."

"Not really her, what are you talking about? I saw her downstairs and Harmony too! She looks the same, talks the same, smiles the same, smells the same, Merlin, she even weighs the same!"

"Sirius, I don't think the two women sitting downstairs are Evangeline and Harmony. I… I think that they are Hermione and Ginny".

"But how would Hermione and Ginny know exactly what Evangeline, and Harmony looked like? Or how they walked, and talked, and smelled and-"

"Sirius, you've just pointed it out! The only reasonable explanation is that Hermione and Ginny _are _Evangeline and Harmony". There was an uncomfortable pause that seemed to be so long they might have aged ten years and not known.

"No…there is no way. The house, the garden, everything that happened, and the whole time it was…how…can that be possible?"

"Don't make the mistake of thinking you're the only one who wants to hurl." For Sirius did indeed have a slight greenish tinge to his skin. "I think we should play it cool. Act as though we believe that they're Hermione and Ginny. If as I believe, they are really Hermione and Ginny, then it'll be pretty obvious once we get into conversation. If they're not Hermione and Ginny. Then I suppose it will likewise become obvious once we get into conversation." Sirius began pacing around the room. What was he going to do? How could he possibly act platonic towards a woman he had fallen madly in love with as a young man. Slowly, a horrible thought began surfacing in his mind. _What if she doesn't want me anymore?_ It started before he could stop it, and consumed his mind, torturing him with the reality of what was happening. He breathing became short and shallow, and he could think of nothing but loving a woman who would not, maybe could not love him back. It was an all too familiar feeling.

"How… how am I-or you for that matter, supposed to sit back and act as though the women we love never existed? Especially when there's two perfect copies cooking dinner in the kitchen!" Sirius didn't know how much more information his brain was going to be able to process in one day. He had come back from beyond a dark abyss to find out that nearly everyone he loved had died, and Sirius honestly didn't believe he had it in himself to pile this on top of everything else.

"well, the alternative is you going downstairs and saying, 'Hello Hermione, we fell in love several years before you were born, and even though probably have no romantic feeling towards me at all, will you marry me?'" Remus said sarcastically.

"I don't know if I can do it. I really don't think that I can."

"Where have I herd that before?" Remus muttered so that Sirius couldn't hear him.

"look, I love her, and if she doesn't remember anything, I'll make her remember". Sirius turned to leave, but Lupin grabbed his arm and said,

"Sirius she wont remember anything, because she hasn't done any of it yet!"

"Whatever you say Remus, but I'm at least going to try". but Sirius had barely pulled his arm out of Lupin's grasp, when he fell to the floor unconscious.

"I'm so sorry Sirius, but you'll regret it if I don't." Remus said, while levitating Sirius' body toward his room. He lowered Sirius gently onto his bed, concentrated hard for a moment, and said, _"Obliviate!", _before walking out of the room.

* * *

"Professor, where's Sirius?" Hermione asked when Lupin arrived in the dining room unaccompanied.

"oh, I'm sorry…Hermione, he said he needed some rest." Lupin said, hesitating on Hermione's name shortly.

"is he feeling alright?" Ginny asked, casting Hermione a worried glance.

"oh yes, he's quite alright. I expect it's just too much for one day's time." he replied avoiding looking anywhere near her. "On a completely different subject, have you found the library?"

"yes!" both girls answered.

"well I was thinking, that we might enjoy our dinner over a nice book. That is of course, unless you have any objections."

"that sounds great, professor!" Hermione said, nearly jumping out of her seat in anticipation. Ginny just laughed at Hermione, and nodded.

Within five minutes, they had moved their dinner into the hidden library, each choosing a seat and platform they would eat at. Ginny resumed her book about a dragon's adventure, and Hermione began a book called Pendragon. Remus, however, went to the topmost platform, to the far-left corner, where a section was labeled _Dark Magic._

There, he searched for anything that might help him, until he saw one that looked like it had some potential. He opened the book to the index, found the section he was looking for, and turned to the page.

_**Vicissi Tempus**_

_Literally means _'change time'._ Vicissi Tempus is a spell that allows the user to send one or more people back in time,a specific amount of years. The user need only concentrateamount of time you wish to travel. The spell itself will allow you to change time, without the presence of your past self. Your present time period, however, will remain frozen in place, so as not to disturb anything if you wish to change past. However, be warned: only use the spell between sunset, and midnight. _

This wasexactly what Remus was looking for. Quickly grabbing a quill and some parchment, he began to write.

* * *

Flashback

Remus was sitting by the fire, in the Gryffindor common room, thinking about yesterdays events, when a voice from behind startled him.

"Remus! Look at this!" Lily said, a piece of paper in her hand.

"What is it Lily?" he replied, coming out of his reverie.

"I found this on the floor" she said, handing him the piece of paper. "I don't think I've ever heard of a spell like that before. You?"

"no" he said unfolding it and looking at the heading. It said Temperatus at the top, whatever that meant. The spell was on how to travel through time, but as far as he knew, no spell or device yet existed on time travel.

End Flashback

* * *

As Remus finished eating his dinner (which was now cold), he re-read everything he had just written.

_Dear Hermione, and Ginny_

_Or should I say Evangeline, and Harmony? For by the time you read this, you should probably be at Hogwarts. As you have probably already figured out, it was I Remus Lupin, who sent you back in time. No doubt, you are there with my younger self, James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily. The book page I tore out for you is the spell I sent you back with. I now believe that you have the ability to change the future. I remember you both from my past. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you any of this during our last night together, but I thought it would be better for you this way. Besides, there are certain things that you should want to do, instead of feeling like you have to. Like I said, I believe that you have the ability to change our future, and I very much hope that you choose to. I have already changed one thing, though; the spell that sent you back before was called Temperatus. I chose to use a different spell this time, one called Vicissi Tempus. The page should tell you anything you will need to know about being there. _

_Be safe._

_Remus_

_P.S.: I have bewitched the parchment so that only you or I can read it. Even so, do try not to lose it. _

Satisfied, Remus magically rolled the letter and old book page into a tiny scroll, slipped it in his pocket, and looked over his railing. Hermione and Ginny were still awake, talking to each other in hushed voices.

"I wonder what he's doing up there? He hasn't said much." Ginny said, looking at Hermione. "I wonder if he…" Hermione said, then stopped looking at the top most platform. "Here he comes."

For Remus had just started down the stairs to greet them. "I thought you two might have already gone to bed." He said smiling at them.

"No, but we finished our books quite a while ago!" Ginny said.

"what have you guys been doing this whole time, talking?" asked Remus.

"well we…we saw the photo albums you had over there," Hermione began, pointing at the self in the corner. "and thought they might be from your youth. We were wondering if you might have any good stories you could tell us." She finished quietly.

"We didn't want to snoop without your permission of course." Ginny said cheerfully.

"Oh," Remus chortled. "I wouldn't dare show you any of those pictures without Sirius first. He would hex me to next Tuesday if I left him out of a good story telling session." he smiled, and inwardly praised himself to come up with such a convincing lie.

"of course! I forgot he was here." said Hermione, getting to her feet.

"Yes, I expect it's going to take a while to get used to him brooding around the house again." Remus joked, laughing at his friends' moodiness.

"Goodnight Professor." Ginny said, and she and Hermione left the room, still laughing at his joke. He listened to Ginny's laugh, and wondered why he had never made the connection before this moment.

Remus, who had no intention of going to bed, waited for a few seconds, then quietly walked toward the library door. He peered round he corner, to be sure the coast was clear before proceeding to the dining room. Glancing at his watch, he figured that he still had around a half an hour before they were actually asleep. Sighing to himself, he went into the kitchen, to make himself some hot chocolate while he waited.

He crept as silently as possible to their door, and pressed his ear to the wood where Hermione and Ginny slept. He couldn't hear anything. Slowly and quietly, he opened the door and stepped inside.

The girls, who were sound asleep, didn't even stir as he shut the door behind him. A quick glance at his watch told him that it was 11:48; he needed to hurry. He levitated the girls down to the floor, so that they would be right next to each other. He took a deep breath, and concentrated hard on the date: _June 27, 1977._

"_Vicissi Tempus!"_

Nothing happened. The girls didn't even roll over to get more comfortable. _Maybe the spell didn't work,_ he thought. _Oh well, maybe it's for the best. I hope Sirius isn't too mad at me for modifying his memory… good thing he wont remember that I did it…_ sighing, Remus floated the girls back into their beds, and left the room. _besides, _he thought to himself_, if the spell doesn't actually work, then I wont have any memory of them when I wake up._

Just as he pulled his blankets up a little more in his own bed, he heard the grandfather clock downstairs chime midnight.

_Chime!_

Hermione and Ginny both stirred in their sleep.

_Chime!_

They were lifting slowly into the air.

_Chime!_

Their bodies moved into a vertical position.

_Chime!_

They began to glow a magnificent purple.

_Chime!_

The glow became brighter, and a breeze swept through the room.

_Chime!_

The purple light illuminated the entire room.

_Chime!_

The girls started spinning, slowly at first, but gaining speed every second.

_Chime!_

They kept spinning faster and faster.

_Chime!_

Their arms left their sides, and spread out horizontally.

_Chime!_

The purple light coming from them changed to an emerald green

_Chime!_

They were spinning faster and faster until,

_Chime!_

_BOOM!_

As soon as the last chime sounded, the girls vanished in an explosion of light, and sound. Then, everything stopped; literally.

Hermione woke to the sound of birds chirping right outside her window. She yawned, and turned to look at Ginny. She was still sleeping. As quietly as she could, she crept across the room and walked out into the hallway. Turning a corner to go down the stairs, she nearly collided with someone. When she saw the persons face however, she screamed.

* * *

A/N: I really hope everything is a little more clarified now. I have a terrible habit of writing as though everyone already know the end of the story. Lol. Sorry ;)


	6. The Author Reveals

Hey everybody, thank you ALL sooooooo much for the

Wonderful reviews!!!!! My computer, unfortunately, is being repaired, so I've been writing everything down on paper, and have not been able to type anything up yet. But, since you have all been nice, and reviewed, I'll give you a hint as to what is going to happen in the next few chapters! Here is one part. It's kind of like a riddle, _and_ a poem. The first person, who can correctly guess what ALL of it means, can ask me five questions about anything you want to know in the story. But you have to get ALL of it right. Here you go!

_As a new love forms, _

_A friend is lost…_

_One is tortured,_

_The other the cost._

_New discoveries made, _

_A love to betray…_

_He looks for the lost, _

_But can't find the way._

_The future's path_

_So strong and planned,_

_Starts to drift_

_By a helping hand…_

_What has happened,_

_Is terrible and cruel._

_But it will end,_

_With a fierce mighty duel._

_Be watching close,_

_As not to miss._

_The most important,_

_Of all this._

_A girl is sent, _

_To save her friends._

_Instead she finds,_

_The One again._

So remember, the first person who can get ALL of it right, can ask me 5 questions about anything they want to know, and I will answer them truthfully. Lol. The second part, is a clip from a part of one of my upcoming chapters.

_Evangeline POV_

As she pulled herself up, she glanced at her surroundings. It looked as though she was in the middle of a mountain range, but it didn't matter. All she knew, was she _had_ to run.

She ran as far away from that place as she could. She ran from her fear, her anger, her_ pain_. She ran for what felt like hours, not stopping once. _He'll catch me,_ she thought. _I cant stop, or he'll find me. _So she kept running, she ran to the nearest mountain, and started to make her way up. She knew that if she could just reach the top, she would be free.

She didn't know how long it took her to reach the top. She couldn't use her left arm without it searing in pain. _I must have broken it_, she thought, and would've healed it herself, had she had her wand. Her chest, already protesting at the strain of her output, had started to bleed again, contributing to the stains of dirt, and old blood on her once powder-blue shirt…

Finally, she had reached the top. What she saw, would've been breathtaking on any normal circumstance. But now, as she looked out into nothing but vast mountains with a river flowing through the valley, she knew there was no where for her to go.

She sat down on the nearest rock and cried. Cried for herself, and her entire situation. She cried for Harry, Ron, Mr. Weasley, and everybody else she knew. She cried for the fact that she didn't have the strength apparate, but knew she had to. Abandoning her rock she stood, and braced herself for the feeling.

She knew something went wrong, and she would never make it. She was falling, falling, falling, hoping someone would catch her.

And they did.

HAH!!! Snap! Now, tell me what you think about that! Lol! Review! Review! Review!

I'm literally writing this at the library, otherwise, I would just write the whole chapter. But sniff! I hope my computer gets fixed soon!!!!!!!!!

CV


	7. Living In Yesterdays Dream

**Extremely important authors note that you have to read before you begin this chapter:**

_Before reading this chapter, if you didn't know before, know now that I am rewriting this story. So to all of you out there who have been following Vicissi Tempus from the beginning, forget everything that you've read from after this point. I deleted like, ten chapters so that I could rewrite them, and I needed to change a LOT of essential plot points. I know a lot of it will be repeating itself, but I promise it's completely worth it to re-read. Everything will be explained so much better than it was before, and there's going to be a lot of things that will actually make sense. I hope none of you are going to spear me for not updating in like two years, and then deleting ten chapters. *laughs awkwardly* I have faith in my wonderful reviewers to continue reading and of course reviewing to tell me what you think =D_

* * *

Chapter 7: Living in yesterday's dream

Hermione screamed, and the person she ran into screamed too. Then she stared unbelievingly into the face of Harry Potter.

"Harry!" she cried. "Oh my-how are you here?" Hermione could hardly believe what she was seeing. Here he was, her best friend, companion through the most difficult times in her life, the Boy Who Lived. Nothing could possibly ruin the wonderful elation she could practically feel coursing through her veins. Nothing except-

"I think you have me confused with someone else." he said. "My name is James."

Of course his name was James. _You're an idiot, _she thought to herself. Of course it wasn't Harry. Harry was dead; she watched that moment in person. Had seen the light leave his eyes, feel him exhale his last breath; watched as his body was lowered into the ground. There was only one person, in Hermione's knowledge, who could possibly bear such a striking likeness to her friend:

James Potter.

If it was true, as Hermione very much suspected it was, then the only viable explanation was one that she was not willing to accept.

"Wh-what?" she squeaked.

"James." He replied, looking at her suspiciously. Hermione suspected that he didn't trust her. Of course, if the roles were reversed, Hermione would trust herself either. A stranger that walks right out of one the extra bedrooms when the darkest wizards of all time is taking control of the wizarding world looks pretty suspicious. "And who might you be?" Hermione froze, her mind conveniently blanking out. What should she say to him?

"Uh…I-" she stammered, mind whirring a million miles an hour. "I don't know if I should tell you". Out of the corner of her eye she noticed James' hand raise a little higher in the air, wand discreetly pointed at her chest. She gripped her own wand tighter in the sleeve of her sweater, mentally preparing for the worst. "Look, I'm not a Death Eater, or anything like that," she said quickly, attempting to avoid conflict. "I'm just in a situation I don't really understand, and I don't know who I can talk to, or who I can trust." James looked at her for a long time, eyes narrowed and a firm grip still on his wand, before sighing and lowering his arm.

"I understand." he said. "I can take you to my parents. I know you don't know them, but I can assure you they are extremely trustworthy, and have nearly every means known to help you with whatever it is that you need." Hermione thought for a moment about telling Harry's grandparents that she had unwittingly traveled back twenty years into the past, when she remembered about Ginny.

"I would be extremely grateful for that," Hermione started. "but my friend is with me, and I don't really think she would thank me for not including her". James looked at her suspiciously once more, but nodded. Without waiting for her to change her mind, she ran back through her bedroom door, and over to Ginny's bedside.

"Ginny!" she said loudly, shaking her shoulder. "Ginny get up now, we have to talk!"

Fifteen minutes later, Hermione and Ginny (who had been filled in on everything Hermione discovered after waking), were following James through the same hallways they had explored only the night before.

"This was Harry's parents house?" Ginny mouthed to her. Hermione just shrugged. It couldn't have been Harry's parents house; they lived in Godric's Hollow, and if they were actually in the same house, then they were still in Chestnut Circle. She opened her mouth to say something similar when they came to an abrupt halt. Hermione looked around. They were in the banquet hall, and James was knocking on the wooden wall underneath the staircase. A door opened out what Hermione had thought was solid wood, and a man who looked like an older James/Harry stepped out.

"Good morning son," he said quite cheerfully. "I didn't know we were expecting company." He added, tilting his head in the direction of Ginny and Hermione.

"Actually," James said. "They need to speak with you privately." James shuffled his feet a little awkwardly.

"Oh." he seemed surprised by the request. "Well, please come right this way." He stepped sideways in extended his arm towards the interior of the hidden room. Hermione walked past him, keeping her eyes on the floor, Ginny following closely behind her. Hermione looked up and was stunned to see that the room was quite large.

Through the doorway, was a small hallway which opened up into a large circular room. She supposed it must have doubled as both a bedroom and a study, since the room had several shelves of books and paper, behind a very large mahogany writing desk. On the other side of the room there was a magnificent double sided fireplace, beyond which was what seemed to be their bedroom area.

"So girls," James' father began. "My name is Charles Potter, James' father. What can I do for you two?" Hermione and Ginny exchanged glances before Hermione said tentatively:

"Mr. Potter, my name is Hermione Granger, and I think we've traveled back in time."

Silence.

* * *

A/N: I know it's not very long, but I sincerely hope it's better than the original version of this that I posted =) please review and tell me =D

Coldie Voldie


	8. A New Leaf

A/N: Even though nobody reviewed my story, I noticed that my story traffic is through the roof. It warms my heart to know that people out there are still interested in this story. Especially since I haven't updated in 4 years, lol. You guys are awesome =)

* * *

Chapter Nine: A New Leaf

Mr. Potter stared at them for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he let out a long breath and said: "That was…quite abrupt." he paused for a moment as though measuring his next words carefully. "How can you be sure?"

"I-" Hermione began. _What should I say?_ She looked at Ginny for some sort of reassurance. Ginny nodded at her. "We…well, we know your son James; and a lot of other people from this time period as well."

"Hmmm…" Mr. Potter said, looking thoughtful. "Well it's 1977. What year are you from? Supposing it's not to far in the future, I might be able to send you back without you disturbing anything in the timeline."

"September 3, 1997", Hermione said quietly, looking at her feet. She knew that there wouldn't be any way to send her forward that far. At least not in _this_ time.

"Ah," he said. "I don't know that I'll be able to send you forward that far."

"It's ok. I didn't think you would."

"Forgive me for interrupting," a voice said from the shadows of the bedroom. A woman stepped into the light. She wore an emerald green robe that went very well with her blonde hair and bright hazel eyes.

"Ginny, Hermione," Mr. Potter said. "This is my wife Elizabeth Potter. Elizabeth, this is Ginny, and Hermione. I'm afraid I don't know their last names, which is probably for the best. I'm assuming her heard the entire conversation?"

"Yes." Mrs. Potter said. "Although, before you discredit me for eavesdropping, I couldn't help but hear everything that you said from inside the bedroom."

"It's fine" Ginny and Hermione said at the same time.

"I believe that it would be in your best interest to have a third party present. One who is much wiser than Charles and myself combined. Do you mind if I summon Albus Dumbledore?" Hermione's breath caught in her throat. Of course they would want to tell Dumbledore. She had forgotten that Dumbledore was even alive. Her head started to ache with the complexity of their situation. Mrs. Potter walked over to the fireplace, and grabbed a handful of Floo Powder.

"Excuse me for a moment." Mr. Potter said, and went over to join his wife. Ginny immediately turned to face Hermione, looking worried.

"Hermione what'll happen if we change the future?"

"I don't know Ginny." She replied looking equally concerned.

"Do you think we'll ever get back?" Hermione looked at Ginny.

"I… I'm not sure. Considering the fact that we don't even know _how_ we got here in the first place, I wouldn't make plans on it" Even as she said it though, she felt she was convincing herself as well.

Ginny stood and crossed over a nearby window. "It's amazing," she said, placing her hand on the glass and staring out across the yard. "We're so close to home, and yet…" she closed her eyes and a single tear fell unnoticed onto the floor below.

"Well," Mrs. Potter said in a cheerful tone, turning to face them once more. "Dumbledore said he would be here as soon as he could. In the meantime, would you like some breakfast?"

"Yes _please_!" Ginny said enthusiastically. Hermione was hungry, but Ginny had an appetite nearly as strong as Ron's, which probably had something to do with Mrs. Weasley's impeccable cooking. She was probably starving by now. Mrs. Potter laughed to herself, and walked out of the room, followed closely by her husband.

The two girls sat silently for a moment before-

"So, time travelers, huh?"

Hermione gave a startled squeak of surprise, and Ginny jumped so badly she nearly fell out of her seat. James Potter stepped out from underneath and invisibility cloak, looking at them with a kind of boyish curiosity, his eyes bright and twinkling.

"How-" Hermione began, mouth opened and closing like a fish out of water.

"Ah save yourself the trouble," James said waving her down. "I am skilled in the arts of marauding."

"You shouldn't have been eavesdropping like that." Ginny said angrily. James just laughed cheerfully, and sat down on a chair across from them.

"Everyone needs a friend who knows their dirty little secrets." he said nonchalantly.

"Incase you didn't notice," Hermione said. "We obviously know each others' biggest secret." James rolled his eyes.

"Obviously you two don't count for each other. For right now at least, you two are stuck indefinitely twenty years in the past, with no one to talk to but each other. You're going to feel so excluded if you can't even have friends while you're here. Trust me, in a months time you'll silently be worshipping me for doing this for you." Hermione could do nothing but gape at him. Hating herself for thinking it, she did secretly agree with him. She knew that if they were to be there for the imminent future, that both she and Ginny would eventually need someone to talk to other than each other; someone their own age.

"So," James continued. "I bet you know all kinds of interesting things. If I recall correctly, you said you know me?"

"We're not going to tell you what happens in the future, so don't even bother asking." Ginny said sharply.

"Calm down now, I wasn't going to ask about events. I'm just curious, that's all." Ginny sighed loudly next to her. Hermione didn't know what James was trying to get out of them, but she knew they couldn't tell him anything. They could be risking the existence other people, or worse, themselves.

"So I'm assuming you must know something about Voldemort. You mentioned that you weren't one of his Death Eaters."

"Yeah, we know quite a bit about him, actually."

"Oh?" James said, raising an eyebrow. Hermione was prepared to respond, but Ginny beat her to it.

"Look", she said. "I know you don't know us very well, and that it's not everyday that someone claiming to be from the future shows up in your bedroom, but we have suffered more by the hand of Voldemort, than you could possibly imagine. So please, pick a different subject before I'm inclined to hex you." She spoke calmly, but her words were harsh. Hermione was shocked to see that unshed tears sparkled in her eyes. James must have noticed that as well, because he didn't press the matter. Once again, they sat uncomfortably in silence, silently awaiting Dumbledore's arrival.

Another ten minutes passed before Mrs. Potter returned to the room, looking slightly windswept. She was carrying a tray of breakfast. The tray held five plates, each consisting of sausage, eggs, hash browns, and bacon. Hermione was about to ask whom the two extra plates were for, when her question was answered for her. Behind Mrs. Potter came Albus Dumbledore. Mrs. Potter seemed completely unfazed by her son's presence in the room, as though she knew he had been hiding all along. Someone else shuffled into the room awkwardly; a girl long auburn-colored hair

The moment he saw her, James sat up straight, smiled at her like a child on Christmas day, and waved. Lily pointedly ignored him, and instead, swept right past him. James' hand fell limp at his side, and his smile turned into a look of mournful longing.

Dumbledore conjured three chairs, one each for him, Lily, and Mrs. Potter.

"Breakfast Albus? How about you Lily?"

"Yes Elizabeth, thank you so much." Dumbledore said, taking his plate. Mrs. Potter smiled.

"Lily?"

"Oh, no thank you Mrs. Potter", Lily replied smiling. "I've already eaten today."

"Quite alright dear, quite alright. Oh, and James?", James turned to face his mother, expecting to be scolded for sneaking into her bedroom. She gave him a look that suggested she was thinking about it, but instead said. "Sirius just showed up. I'm quite sure it's for the remainder of the summer. I'll need you to go take care of entertaining him."

"Can't I just hex him and come back?" James asked, putting forth his best puppy face and folded his hands. Mrs. Potter, who was obviously well trained against such looks, shook her head.

"No James, I'm afraid you'll just have to suffer." James scowled, but Mrs. Potter just smiled at him and held the door open. James, still scowling at his mother, left the room stomping his feet the whole way. Next to Hermione, Ginny was stifling a giggle, and she whispered,

"It's amazing how alike James and Harry are isn't it?" Ginny asked. Hermione smiled and nodded. She was about to say something back, but was silenced by a look from Dumbledore. Mrs. Potter shut the door abruptly after James left, and turned to face Dumbledore.

"Do you need my assistance?" Mrs. Potter asked.

"If you don't mind staying," Dumbledore said, "then we could certainly use your help." Dumbledore then turned to face Hermione and Ginny and said, "I assume you two ladies know who I am?"

"Hermione smiled, nodded and said, "of course. Your Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry".

"We were currently attending Hogwarts in our time," Ginny said, throwing all caution to the wind, " we were in Gryffindor, both going into our seventh year."

"was there anything of great importance happening at this time?" Dumbledore asked. "I'm wondering if a certain event could be linked to your situation."

"Well, we were at war with Voldemort" Ginny continued. "An attack on the school in the middle of our previous year caused the Board to close the school and send us all home early."

"What month was this?" Dumbledore asked staring intently at the two.

"Approximately May". Hermione replied.

"And what", Dumbledore continued", caused an attack so powerful that they would close the school two months early?"

Hermione and Ginny both hesitated. Hermione didn't know how she would approach the subject, seeing as it led to Dumbledore's death.

"Well", Hermione started. "Voldemort obviously. Well you see… you had left the school, due to a very important mission. While you were away a student managed to smuggle Death Eaters into the school." Both Lily and Mrs. Potter gasped while Dumbledore bore a very stern look.

"Continue, my dear." Dumbledore said, all twinkling gone.

"Professor, I can't." Hermione choked out. Her throat was constricting, and she could feel the first prickling burn of tears about to be shed.

"I understand some things maybe hard to talk about," Dumbledore said. "But-"

"No professor," Hermione said, "I know the dangers caused by messing with time. I used a timeturner in my third year. There are some things I cannot tell you. I cannot tell you the rest of that night's events, but I _can_ tell you what happened our last night in 1997."

"Very well." Dumbledore replied, looking taken aback for a moment.

Hermione took a deep breath to steady herself. "We were staying with Remus Lupin, and were in the library talking with him. He was researching something for a few hours, and then we went to bed. I don't think I was completely asleep when it happened, but I was so tired, I thought it was just a dream. And today we woke up here… in the same bedroom we fell asleep in last night. "

* * *

Nearly two hours had passed since Hermione had woken and found James, and at Dumbledore's urging, they had taken up new identities that they would assume for as long as they were trapped in the past. Lily, and Mrs. Potter had provided numerous names of distant relatives, and Ginny and Hermione had both eventually been re-named. Ginny was named after Lily's great-grandmother, Harmony Elizabeth Shance In addition, Hermione, was named after Mrs. Potter's great-grandmother, and was now Evangeline Renée Grace.

The four women, and Dumbledore had worked on a story together that the girls would soon live by. It was surprisingly simple. Evangeline was a distant relative of the Potter's. The Grace's were long-time friends of the Shance's. Evangeline was born a year before Harmony. The Shance's wanted a child of their own, and later moved to France when their daughter Harmony was born.

After the murder of her parents at the age of six, Evangeline was sent to live with Harmony, and her godparents. They attended Beauxbatons, and lived together for eleven years. when Harmony's parents were both murdered by Voldemort during the end of their school year, both girls were sent to live with Evangeline's only living relative's: the Potters.

Dumbledore had given Harmony, Evangeline, one hundred galleons apiece, and explained to him that Lily had been brought along to help the girls transition smoothly into the time period without drawing attention to themselves, and was to stay the remainder of the summer with the Potter's as well. The story had been relayed to James, who was thrilled at the idea of Lily staying the entire summer at his house. They were to go straight to Diagon Alley, purchase everything they would need, and 'show up' at the Potter's as though they had just been sent there. The only person in the entire house who did not know of their secret identity was Sirius Black, who had most inconveniently shown up on the doorstep early that morning, and it was because of his presence that they would no have to go through so much effort to make their alibi believable. Their only problem now, was sneaking back into their room so that they could change their clothes before leaving.

Peeking through a crack in the door of Mr. and Mrs. Potter's bedroom, lily motioned to them that the coast was clear, and they ran as quietly as possible up the stairs and into their bedroom. Breathing quickly and smiling at the sheer silliness of sneaking through a house to avoid a 17 year-old Sirius Black, Hermione threw on the first outfit she found, and tossed her hair up into a messy bun. Now they just needed to sneak back out.

Their bedroom window was too high for them to climb out of, and unfortunately, the bedroom James and Sirius shared was only a little farther down the hallway from theirs. Sirius could be heard going in and out of it, making their task incredibly more difficult. Lily, who was peering through the crack between the door and the floor, beckoned to them quickly.

"Come on." she whispered.

However, just as they were about to open the door, they heard Sirius' voice loudly from the other side. _He must be right outside,_ Hermione thought.

"James, what's got into you?" he said, chuckling slightly. "You look just as happy as that day Lily fooled you into thinking she'd go to Hogsmeade with you… I will never forget how the way your face looked…" Hermione glanced at Lily, who was smirking.

"His face _was_ pretty funny…" she said, a glint in her emerald eyes.

"Oh ha, ha, ha, Sirius." James said sarcastically. "I'm so lucky to have a friend such as you. I'll never forget my most embarrassing moments with _you _there." Sirius chuckled.

"Oh I know, I am the greatest. Honestly, I think you set yourself up for it. You're too dramatic for your own good." Their voices grew quiet, but Lily didn't dare open the door, until she heard _theirs_ shut.

"We're good," she said, pulling her head back inside the door. "But we should probably hurry. Get your bags, quickly!" Harmony and Evangeline turned, and grabbed their bags of galleons from the nightstand.

They were supposed to set up separate bank accounts when they arrived in Diagon Alley and shop as quickly as possible. Dumbledore was wary about having too much attention drawn on them, before it need be.

"Come on", Lily whispered as they passed James' closed door. "If we're quiet, we can get out unnoticed." Hermione and Ginny nodded. The staircase, which was directly across James' room, was their destination. Right as they were about to turn the corner and go down the stairs, Sirius' voice could again be heard.

"Hey Prongs, I'm going to go get some breakfast, want some?" All three girls turned to face the door that Sirius was about to come out of. Ginny and Lily were frozen, staring transfixed at the door, but Hermione didn't even bother to speak her plan. Instead, she took off, and bolted down the staircase.

The other two followed her lead, as fast as they could. Hermione thought quickly. They could never reach the hallways in time to escape through the front door without being seen by Sirius,

"Hide!" she whispered, and moved to the right side of the staircase. Folding herself under a side table, she glanced at the doorway to the kitchen. She held her breath as Sirius appeared at the bottom of the staircase, hoping he hadn't noticed anything. However, Sirius didn't stop. Instead, he walked right through to the hallway without a second thought.

Then, as silently as she could, she abandoned her hiding spot, and went to get Lily and Ginny. They too, were coming out of their hiding spots. Just as Hermione opened her mouth, James came down the stairs.

"What are you doing?" he was whispering, but it was such a loud whisper, that Hermione was sure Sirius would come back into the room. "Aren't you, uh, not supposed to be here?"

"Oh ha, ha, James. Very funny," Lily said rolling her eyes.

"What? I can't help I if you don't have Marauder skills!" Lily rolled her eyes again. "Well, I would suggest that you go through that window. You'll never get out if you go through the kitchen."

"Thanks James," Lily whispered. "Listen-"

"Prongs! Will you hurry it up!" Sirius was coming back into the room.

"Run!" James whispered, and threw the window open with a quick flick of his wand. For the second time that day, the three girls bolted, and quite literally dove headfirst through the window, Hermione in the lead. The minute the window shut, the three girls burst out laughing.


	9. Playing The Part

Chapter 10: Playing The Part

"Well, I cant exactly say I've had a boring day", Harmony said, as the three girls moved toward the Leaky Cauldron. Both Lily and Evangeline laughed.

"I completely agree." Lily said.

"So Lily," Evangeline said a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I couldn't help but notice your…exchange with James earlier." Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yes", Harmony said, joining in. "do tell Lils, do tell".

"Oh what?" she snapped. "Like you don't already know anyway?"

"Oh, maybe we do, maybe we don't…" Evangeline teased. "But really Lily, what _is_ going on? And don't lie either."

"Yeah," Harmony said. "We'll know if you do. We see the little looks…" Lily blushed.

"Alright, alright, you win." She said, glaring at the two. "James has liked me since my…3rd year? Yes, I believe it was my 3rd year. Then I started to like him in my 4th…"

"Then _why_ don't you go out with him?" Harmony asked, as if she were explaining something very simple to a small child.

"Because," Lily said, mocking Harmony's tone. "I wanted him to be a little more mature, and _learn_ how to control that ego of his…"

"Ok look." Evangeline said. "Has he not matured since you started to like him?"

"Well…"

"And", Harmony said. "Would you not agree, that even though he _loves_ to prank, that he does care _very_ deeply about you?"

"Well if you put it _that_ way…"

"_And_", Evangeline continued. "He hasn't dated a single person since the 3rd year. Come on, Lils. You _know_ you want to go out with him!"

"Ok!" Lily cried, throwing her hands up in the air. "You win. The next time he asks me out… I'll say yes."

"Good!" both Evangeline and Harmony said at the same time. Lily merely glared at them.

Five minutes later, they were back in front of the Potter manor, but this time they had trunks filled with clothes, books, and all of their school necessities. They made their way to the door and knocked. They heard a muffled yell of, "Mum, they're here!" right before none other than James Potter opened the door.

"Hey!", He said hugging Harmony and Evangeline in turn. She had to admit he _did_ put on a very good act. When he got to Lily, however, he stopped, looking absurd with his arms frozen in a mid-hug gesture. He moved a little farther back from Lily, and dropped his hands, mumbling an inaudible apology. Lily just smiled at him, and stepped over the threshold.

Once inside, Mrs. Potter also hugged the three girls, and Evangeline knew that she too, was putting on an act.

"Oh goodness!" she said. "It's been _too_ long! Where have you been? I was beginning to think you'd never show!" Evangeline smiled with a somewhat forced un-enthusiasm. On the one hand, Dumbledore had specifically told her how she was supposed to act: sad and deeply depressed on the inside. However, on the other, she was really having the most fun she'd probably had in months. She was so happy just to be surrounded by a group of people she could call friends again.

Mrs. Potter went to give Hermione another hug, and whispered in her ear. "Remus is here as well, in the living room. Sirius is in the shower. I've told them both your 'story'." She then left to bustle around the kitchen looking for drinks.

Remus, who had just finished introducing himself to Harmony, made his way over to Evangeline.

"Hi," he said, shaking her hand in a dignified manor. "Remus Lupin".

"My name's Evangeline Grace. Nice to meet you, Remus".

"Likewise, Evangeline. But please, do call me Mooney, everyone I know does."

"Mooney? Hmm, interesting nickname…"

"Yes well, I have quite the interesting group of friends." Evangeline and Remus both laughed. "It was nice to meet you, Evangeline. I do hope we see more of each other, in the near future!"

"Likewise, Mooney". Evangeline said, smiling at the use of his nickname. "I think given our present situation, that we will be seeing quite a bit of each other soon…" Remus shook her hand once more, and made his way back to where Harmony was seated.

Evangeline looked around and spotted James, standing by himself. As she moved closer, she realized, that James was staring at Lily, with a wistful, mourning look. It was so severe, and full of passion, it seemed as though it caused it physical pain. "You love her so much James." She said, startling him with her abrupt presence. "Why do you not portray your feelings toward her in a more serious manner? As something more than just a silly crush".

"Because she'll will never see it as more than that". James said, turning to face her. She thought she saw tears shimmer in his eyes. "She hates me. And I…" he sighed. "I will never win her heart. It will never be any different. Putting more effort into it just seems to make it more difficult when she rejects." Evangeline looked appalled.

"James, you can't just…give up!" she yelled in a furious whisper. Evangeline then realized that yelling at him probably wouldn't help change his mind, so she changed her tone to a softer one. "She _doesn't_ hate you. She's been waiting for you, James. Waiting for you to be mature enough to realize _why_ she's been rejecting you all these years."

"But I didn't realize it. _You_ just told me."

"Yes well, everyone needs a little push in the right direction."

"I would be correct in assuming then, that you and Lily have been discussing this very matter?" his tone had lightened, and his face bore a smile.

"Yes I have!" Evangeline said proudly. James looked at her with an expression that said he doubted her. "Don't give me that look!"

"Do you really think so?" he asked, glancing at Lily with a hopeful expression.

"Yes I do, James. And not just because of my…" she coughed. "…Situation either. I truly and honestly think that." James smiled and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Thank you, Her-Evangeline." He said before releasing her. Evangeline just smiled, and held her hand towards Lily, as if she were presenting her.

"Go get her," she said. James laughed and made his way over to Lily. She was sitting on the couch, talking to some of the people Mrs. Potter had invited over. James knelt down next to where she was sitting, and whispered something inaudible to her. Lily nodded, gave her company her pardon, and followed James, right out the front door.

It hit Evangeline then, how alike James and Harry _really_ were. She had noticed it before, but something on James' face actually made her believe she was looking at Harry. At that moment, something else hit her with a realization so hard, tears began to form in her eyes.

She glanced at Harmony, who was conversing deeply with Remus. Looking around the room, she saw even more people she didn't know. She had guessed that Mrs. Potter had invited them to avoid too many questions, but it was almost as if they were taunting her.

As Evangeline made her way to the staircase, she wiped the tears from her eyes. She wondered how many times that Harry had looked at her with the same look James had given Lily. How long had she been oblivious to how he really felt? How many times, did Harry try and _fail_ to win her heart. Had he told Ron the same thing that James had just confided in her? Why then, did he die for her?

* * *

**Flashback**

_Three days after their latest attack from Voldemort, Harry, and Hermione sat quietly at the table, in their small, shared apartment. They had lost so many people that time, so many people that _they_ knew. Dean Thomas, Parvati Patil, even Oliver Wood had shown up. However, the hardest loss that day, had been that of Arthur Weasley. _

_He had fought so valiantly, so hard. If he only would have held eye contact… an explosion from the other end of the battlefield had broken his eye contact, only for a second. However, in that second, without a moment's hesitation, Lucius Malfoy took his shot. _

_Had Ron been there, Malfoy would have been dead. Unfortunately enough, Hermione had found Ron's body the previous week, on the side of a river. Nothing had been going right._

_The night Harry and Hermione had been informed of Ron's abduction, they had both stayed up all night, trying to find a lead in where he might be. Every night since then, they refused to sleep more than a couple hours in a night, which completely altered their appearance._

_Harry's emerald eyes had lost their spark, and were now a dull green. His jet-black hair would even lay down flat in the back. Dumbledore's death had affected him more than anyone else, even more so than Cedric Diggory's had. _

_Hermione's bushy brown hair, had turned mousy. Her curls lost their… well, curl. They hung loosely in waves that reached her elbows. Her eyes, like Harry, were not the same either. However, unlike Harry, her eyes had completely changed color. The honey brown had been replaced by a hazy gray, and both friends had lost tremendous amounts of weight. _

End Flashback

* * *

Evangeline knew that Harry had deeply cared about her. She blamed herself completely for his death, because it really was her fault. _Well, _she thought. _At least he died before I broke his heart…_ with this thought Evangeline literally burst into tears. She hurried up the remainder of the stairs, and ran off, down the hall, not paying any attention to where she was going. All she knew was that she had to leave. To get away, and be alone. Wrapped up completely in her thoughts, she ran right into someone, as she turned a corner. It was Sirius. A Sirius, she would later note, that was _very_ good looking.

Evangeline gasped, for more than one reason; the first being that he had scared her half to death. The second being that the Sirius she knew in _her_ time looked _completely_ different, than Sirius in 1977. His gray eyes had more life in them, more happiness. He looked much taller, mostly because he had unusually good posture for someone his age, and partly because Azkaban had done everything it could to change him. He looked…healthy. Evangeline had once laughed at the idea that someone could look completely different when they were healthy. Within the past few months, she had started to wonder if the person who came to that conclusion, had suffered from personal loss as well. She wondered how different she herself looked.

Looking up at Sirius' eyes once more, she concluded that he looked _much_ better healthy.

* * *

Sirius POV

Sirius spent the majority of his time in the shower, thinking over his life. He did that every-so-often; it was like a quiet time with himself. When he got out of the shower, he was still deep in thought. Putting on a pair of blue jeans, and a plain dark brown shirt, he opened the bathroom door, and slammed right into someone. Looking down he saw that the someone, was a young girl. A very _good_-looking girl. She had crystal blue eyes, and hair that reached her elbows in loose, raven curls. Her gaze was quite captivating, and she almost seemed as interested in him, as he was in her.

He felt somewhat intimidated by her. Almost like she could know everything about him, just by looking into his eyes. He felt that he could stare into those eyes for eternity…until she gasped. It had only been a split second after they hit each other, but the mind is always five steps ahead of you. She looked down shortly, and when she looked back up, he noticed that she had been crying recently.

"are- are you alright?" he asked. She held his gaze, with tears still spilling down her face. He suddenly felt compelled wipe them away and tell her everything would be fine. She didn't answer but looked away, her bottom lip trembling with the effort of delaying a complete breakdown. "I'm s-sorry," he said. Why was he nervous? "I didn't mean to- I mean I didn't see-". She let out a small sob, turned away for a moment, and as quickly as she had come she was gone, slamming a bedroom door shut behind her. Quietly, as though it was wrong, he snuck over to the door she had vanished behind and raised a tentative hand, preparing to knock. He could hear her tremulous sobbing from the other side of the wood. Slowly, he lowered his arm, and decided against interrupting her. He reasoned that if she had wanted to talk about it, she would've done so earlier. It was plain that she needed to be alone for now.

As Sirius entered the living room, he mentally noted that Mrs. Potter could definitely throw a wild party for someone whose parents were just killed by Voldemort. There was food and drinks everywhere, and some light music was playing in the background. Looking around for James, Sirius found Remus laughing and talking to a very pretty girl with elbow-length brown hair, and deep blue eyes. He assumed this must be either Harmony or Evangeline.

_You would think they would be a little more upset, given their situation; then again, Remus does have a way of making people forget the world around them…_ Abandoning his post, he continued around the living room, looking for James.

He was quite surprised to find him sitting on the couch snuggled up next to Lily, his hand in hers, and talking to his great-uncle Alfred.

"Padfoot!" James exclaimed, grinning like a madman. He held up his left hand, which was holding Lily's, their fingers laced together. Lily rolled her eyes, but was blushing just the same.

"well it's about time!" Sirius exclaimed laughing at James giddy attitude. Sirius sat down on the couch next to James, remembering why he had sought him out in the first place. "listen, James I wanted to ask you something." And he proceeded to tell him everything about his encounter with the raven-haired beauty. By the end of his tale, James looked quite quizzical, and Lily was frowning.

"you didn't say anything that might upset her did you?" she asked. Sirius looked taken aback.

"No, I couldn't even finish an entire sentence." He didn't think that they needed to know that it was because he was acting like a blubbering idiot. Lily and James both shared a knowing look.

"I'll go talk to her." Lily said, moving to get up.

"No," James said, earning a stern look from Lily. "no, I was, uh, talking to her earlier. I think it might have something to do with our conversation. I'll talk to her." Lily nodded, and let go of his hand. Sirius smiled in thanks, and both he and Lily, watched James' retreating back.

* * *

James POV

James knocked on the door to Evangeline and Harmony's room before entering. Evangeline was sitting on her bed, her back to the door, staring out the window. James sat down next to her on the bed, and glanced at her face. Her eyes were red, making the blue in them stand out even more. Her face was tear stained, and she was still crying. James could see the pain in her eyes.

"Evangeline?" he asked tentatively. She didn't move her gaze from the window, but spoke softly.

"I'm sorry James. I wish I could just tell you what happened to me." James nodded, and even more tears fell. "you don't know what it's like, being here. Seeing all of you. It's a complete contrast from what I know. My world is so…" she closed her eyes, and bowed her head. "so dead". She said, in barely more than a whisper.

"it's okay, Evangeline." James said, placing his hand on the far side of her face, making her look at him. "you have a purpose here. Otherwise, none of this would be happening. It'll get better soon. I promise." Evangeline said nothing, but returned her gaze to the window

"you don't know that." She whispered.

"you're right, Evangeline." He said, not letting go of her. "I don't know. However, I do know that things can only get better. No matter how bad things get, God never gives you more than you can handle. That I promise". Evangeline turned her head away, pointedly looking in the opposite direction. James took the hint, and retreated from the room, but not before rubbing her back comfortingly to let her know he would always be there for her.

A/N: sooooo that's probably the longest chapter I've ever written so far. Sorry it took so long to write, but I went back and added SOOOOO much to this chapter, it's not even funny. Probably everything from the part where Evangeline is talking to James, to the end of the chapter is added. This means, I have WAY more to write about in the next chapter! Lol, it's gonna be great, just wait. Therefore, I want to say thank you so much to my reviewers. Oh, and Hermione and Ginny had the choice of their names. So when you asked, why isn't Hermione Harmony, because it sounds so much easier, it's because Hermione chose to have the name Evangeline, over Harmony. I just thought I'd answer that. Oh, and the part in on of my previous chapters where I put the poem in there, and gave you a part of one of my upcoming chapters, well, that part is coming up soon! Just thought I'd let you know!

Please, please, please, please, pretty please review!

Coldie Voldie


	10. Lost

Chapter 10: Lost 

Something had changed in Evangeline since her first night at the Potter's home. Her talk with James had burned a guilty hole inside of her. She couldn't help but see James' look of mournful adoration on Harry's face when he looked at her. She replayed every moment they had together, wracking her brains to see if he had left her any clues, had all but said he was in love with her, only to be ignored and unloved. She did love him; more than anyone alive. She just couldn't bring herself to think of him romantically. It was like going against nature for her; and every day she spent in 1977 amplified her misery. She could hardly bear to see James' face, or Lily's eyes. It was agony to see Remus and Sirius so whole, and (for the most part) completely innocent to the terrors they would be experiencing in a few years time. An although she hated herself for it, she wanted nothing more than to go back to 1997.

She wanted to be home, where most of her friends were dead and she could move on. She wanted to be in this house twenty years in the future with Sirius and Remus, swapping fond memories with them, and embracing a life without Voldemort. She had spent most of her life living under the shadow of that mans terror, only to be thrust right back into the beginning of it just when his reign had ended. She couldn't handle being in the past where it would be so easy to change thins, and make it so that James and Lily never died, Voldemort never rose to power again, Sirius never went to prison, and her friends would be alive. It was worse than torture to look into their eyes and know the things that she did. It was too difficult to be in that time, and she wanted out more than anything in the world to be Hermione again.

And so Harmony and herself had thrown themselves into studying, and searching. Looking for anything, spell, potion, artifact, or book that could send them forward in time. Week after week they searched day and night. They hardly ate at all, and when they did they didn't really seem to have much of an appetite. After the third week of diligent searching, Harmony closed the book she was reading and put it on the shelf, left the library, and did not come back.

Evangeline felt more determined than ever to find a way back. She had to do it; not just for herself, but for Harmony as well. With no one in the library to remind her to take breaks for water, or on occasion for a meal, she had no idea how ragged she was running herself. Even when someone did come to check on her, usually James or Harmony, she didn't even notice them there. Her research was getting her nowhere, and a few days after Harmony quit looking for an answer, Sirius tentatively shuffled into the library.

* * *

Sirius POV

After his first encounter with Evangeline, the atmosphere in the Potter household was unbearably tense. The two young girls had secluded themselves in the library for hours, even days at a time. Lily frequently expressed her concern for the situation, exclaiming that they shouldn't be allowed to seclude themselves like they were, and that someone should intervene, make them stop.

"No, Lily." James had said wearily. "If we force them to do something against their will it will just fuel their desire to continue doing it, and eventually they'll continue doing it just to spite us."

Lily disagreed loudly, and she and James always ended up bickering until someone else told them to be quiet. Sirius himself wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. On the one hand he quite agreed with James, knowing that if someone continuously tried to force something on him against his will, that it _would_ make him want to do it as spite. A smaller part of him, buried deep within, wanted to go in there and shake Evangeline out of her stupor, and he didn't know why. When it came to other people (with the exception of his three best friends and Lily), he could care less if they wanted to drown in their sorrows. His childhood had given him a lifetime of torturous memories, and he didn't want to pile others' on top of them. Things only became more uncomfortable from there, and soon, three weeks had gone by.

Everyone was sitting in the dining room when they heard the door to the library close. James looked between the group and the doorway, and left to see who it was. Hardly breathing so that he could hear as much as possible, Sirius was able to distinguish James' voice, but nothing more than mumbled conversation. Soon he re-entered the dining room, and everyone sat up stiffly in their seats.

"It was Harmony." he said. "she said she's not feeling well, and wants to lie down." Sirius' face fell in disappointment, then turned to one of shame as me mentally kicked himself for being inconsiderate. For the next few days Harmony remained in her room visited only by Lily (who slept there) and occasionally Remus with something for her to eat.

At the end of the third day after Harmony emerged from the library, Sirius decided he'd had enough. It was torture for him to watch someone starving themselves over research, he didn't care how important it might have been. As quietly as he could so he wouldn't wake his slumbering friends, he crept over to the door and snuck out of the room. The hallway lamps were all still lit, so he didn't have walk blindly. As he approached the hidden doorway to the library, he could see that the lights were on inside as he had already assumed they would be. He opened the door and shuffled awkwardly inside, keeping his eyes on the floor as though she might see right through him if she looked into his eyes like she had on their first introduction.

He could hear that she had stopped shuffling papers, and that her breathing was shallow. He gathered up some courage he didn't realize he had lost, and chanced a glance in what he thought was her direction. She was sitting on the floor not five feet away from him, papers scattered around her in every direction, and teetering piles of books in front of her. He looked over at her, and saw she was looking directly at him, blue eyes piercing his soul once more. He had only seen her a handful of times, each of them only in passing since their first encounter, but he could tell that she was thinner than before. An accomplishment in his mind, seeing as how she was already paper thin when he met her. She looked tired, and desperate, like some tragic Rapunzel trapped inside a tower with no possible chance of rescue. Suddenly for no reason he was nervous again.

"would…how would-" why couldn't he form words? "can I…make you something to eat?" he couldn't describe to himself how he felt, only that it was driving him insane. He needed her to agree, or tell him to get out, or _anything_ to break the piercing look she was giving him. Raising her eyebrow ever so slightly, she sighed and nodded. Relieved, he crossed the room quickly and reached out for her hands to help her off the floor. She offered him one more short piercing look before stretching her arms towards his and grabbing his hands. They were soft, and smooth, and tiny, and as cold as ice. He gripped them tightly, and pulled her up slowly.

She immediately lost her balance and fell against his chest, and without thinking, he had a firm grip on her upper arm and a supportive hand on her waist.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked. Her face had paled considerably, and she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

"I-I'm fine." she whispered, eyes still closed. "I think….I stood up too-" she her arms and body fell limp against his chest and he realized that she must've passed out. Balancing her carefully against his body, he moved the hand that was grasping her arm, to her back, the other arm underneath her legs, and picked her up. He felt like he was lifting a basket of laundry she was so light. Using his foot, he managed to open the door wide enough to carry her out of the library, and headed up the stairs to one of the many vacant rooms. Bending his knees slightly so that he could reach the doorknob without dropping Evangeline, he secretly thought that he was glad it was him she had passed out on. It stirred something inside of him to be responsible to caring for something so delicate, something in his soul that gave him an overwhelming sense of pride when he saw her head resting in the crook of his chest and arm. Very carefully he set her down on the full-size bed that was inside one of the empty rooms. She stirred ever so slightly as he wriggled him arms out from underneath her.

"Shhh," he said, gently touching the side of her face, making small, soothing strokes to help her relax into sleep. He knew she needed rest. He reached his other hand into the back pocket of his jeans, withdrew his wand, and conjured up a thick warm quilt, draping it gently over her tiny resting form. Something cold splashed over his hand, and he was pleased to see that Evangeline had grabbed his hand, and put it between her face and the pillow beneath, curling into a ball and sleeping as peacefully as ever.

Sirius, not wishing to disturb her anymore, conjured up a comfortable chair next to her bed, and made himself comfortable. His eyes became gradually heavier with every passing moment, and as he looked over at Evangeline's sleeping form once more, he knew that this moment would be the start of something much greater than had ever happened to him before.

A/N: This chapter wasn't supposed to even happen, lol. I was rewriting the beginning of the next chapter, and this literally formed itself. Haha. I hope that it adds something amazing. I know it's short, but I really felt like it deserved to be on it's own =)


	11. A Dream, a Sleepover, and a Fight

Chapter 11: A Dream, a Sleepover, and a Fight.

Over a month had passed since Evangeline woke in a strange bed with her face in a mess of black hair that didn't belong to her, clutching onto the hand of Sirius Black, things couldn't have been so drastically different as they had become. Upon waking on that day, Sirius had informed that she passed out from exhaustion, he carried her up to bed, and unintentionally fell asleep.

He then proceeded to giver her one of the most guilt inducing lectures she had ever received in her lifetime, and made her promise him that she would put aside her research and focus on being healthy. Something in his eyes and the way he said it to her made her agree without blinking.

Something had changed in his demeanor after that night. She could sense that he felt differently about her, she noticed that he would look at her differently, and talk to her differently than he did the others. Maybe it was all her imagination, but then again, perhaps it wasn't. Either way it terrified her to her bones. She had felt a connection with anyone the way she felt it with Sirius. She could look into his eyes and see his thoughts. When was near him she could practically feel his every emotion. And when he looked into _her_ eyes….she refused to acknowledge it.

* * *

Sirius POV

She consumed his every thought, day and night. Her scent intoxicated him, so that no matter where he went, whether he was dog or human, he could always smell her. Lavender and roses, and he would _never_ forget it. It took him ages to distinguish the exact scent, and had been driving him mad. Thankfully, good old Moony had come to his rescue, with his ever so keen werewolf senses.

Much to everyone's amusement (though, strangely not Evangeline's), Remus Lupin had completely fallen in love with Harmony Shance. Sirius repeatedly thanked Merlin for giving him the ability to hide his feelings. He _knew_ Lily would guess it, there was no escaping that, with her clever mind and all, but he made her _swear_ she wouldn't tell James. If James knew, it was all over. He would never rest until he had thrown them in as many awkward uncomfortable silences, or positions, with tense unspoken feelings drifting through the air between them. It was his way.

Sirius shook his head to clear the image, and silently shuddered at the prospect of such embarrassment. He would _not_ let that happen. But for now, he could only dread his upcoming debut, and make the surprise party they were planning as amazing as it could possibly be.

* * *

Evangeline POV

War; she had been dealing with it her entire life. From the time she had been born, until her 5th year at Hogwarts, she had handled war in the form of the game Risk. It was a Granger family tradition, and she loved playing it. However, she had stopped playing altogether after her 6th year. There was just too much real war, to fake it with a good conscience.

When she had entered her first year at Hogwarts, war had come in one word with three syllables: Voldemort. He had haunted her for so long, and she would never fully be free of him. Evangeline had three present wars to think about at this moment. One had to do with Voldemort growing stronger every day, another was the two-day long game of Risk that she, Harmony, Sirius James, Lily, and Peter were still playing, and the last was an internal battle over a one Sirius Black

Oh how he dominated over her thoughts, with that stupid sweet smile he saved just for her, and that she loved so much.

At first, she was constantly reminding herself that he was _Sirius Black_, Harry's future godfather. The same man who would be riding on the back of a hippogriff with her in 16 years. The man Harry, Ron, and she would be sneaking food to the year after that, so he didn't have to live off of rats. The same man who would die the year after _that_, just to protect her from her own mistakes…

Soon after this, she realized that there was no point in denying how she felt about him. With the acceptance of her feelings, came the realization that no matter how much she liked him, she could do _nothing_ to change the past, or her future for that matter.

It was this fact that led Evangeline to her third battle. On the one hand, she liked Sirius so much; she nearly drove herself mad. On the other, she knew what was at stake. She would do whatever she had to, to deny her feelings, if it came to that. For now, she only had to act as though nothing was different. Her worst fear, however, was that he would like her back. If that happened, she didn't know if she would even be able to deny her feelings at all.

And what was worse, Harmony had already expressed her feelings for Remus to Evangeline. She knew that it was only a crush for now, but she also knew, that she wouldn't be able to stop Harmony as well, as she might be able to stop herself. She would try her hardest, and she'd be dammed if anyone who knew of _their_ situation would question her. They were already changing things enough and Harmony knew it. She just had a problem accepting it.

"Evangeline, can you get the other side of this banner?" Harmony asked, bringing Evangeline out of her reverie.

_Oh yeah,_ she thought. _The surprise party. _Drawing her thoughts away from _those_ problems, she focused on the task at hand: a surprise party for James and Lily.

Evangeline nodded, and grabbed the other side of the banner.

"Sirius, can I ask you something?" Remus asked his long-time friend.

"Sure Moony, ask away".

"Well, uh… you see, uh I, uh…"

"You like Harmony." It was more of an 'I already know' statement then a question.

"Was I _that_ obvious?"

"No, not that bad. I just have a knack for spotting such things." Remus laughed a little.

"Well, I was uh, hoping to ask her out tonight…" Remus blushed while he spoke, and was concentrating intently on magically planting flowers. "Go on then laugh. I've been expecting it actually."

"Moony, I'm not going to laugh at you, this is great!" Remus looked a little skeptical. "I'm happy for you; really I am."

"Do you think she'll say yes?"

"Well, _I_ do, but James might not."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, he's apparently convinced that Harmony and I will end up together. He says it every night…" at this, Remus burst out laughing, and dropped the stone he was levitating, right on Sirius' foot. This caused Remus to laugh even harder, and earn himself a scowl from Sirius.

"Oh yeah, this is _hilarious_, Moony."

"Well, from my perspective it is. James _knows_ Harmony doesn't like you! He knows, and _has known_ for quite some time, that Evangeline is the one who has stolen your mind away. The Harmony thing was Peter's idea of annoying you to the point, where you'd admit your feelings for her." Remus chuckled. "And me dropping the stone on your foot was just classic, admit it Padfoot."

"Was _I_ that obvious?"

"Well, kind of. But I have a knack for spotting such things…" he grinned at Sirius mischievously.

"Hey, speaking of Peter, is he okay? Mum's invited him over for dinner twice this week, and he hasn't shown. Know anything",

"Yes, actually. He has a terrible spell of the stomach flu. Been throwing up at least six times a day."

"Do I even _want_ to know how you found this out?"

"I took the liberty of buying his school supplies for him, seeing as he cant even leave his bedroom…"

"Aww, Moony you sweetie pie!"

"Oh shut up Padfoot." Remus said as he chuckled to himself. He and Sirius then sat down at a table, near the quite spectacularly decorated surprise party, hidden in the back yard of the Potter Manor. Sirius sighed and looked at the sky.

"Lord Moony, can you believe we're graduating this year?"

"Mmm"

"It just seems so…surreal."

"Ah, but they're always better than expected, no?"

"I concur, Master Lupin; what other advice have you for me?" Remus was about to answer, when they heard Mrs. Potter's voice.

"Sirius? Remus? Are you finished yet, I have the food ready-" she stopped, gasped, and simply stared. Both boys had been anxious for her approval. They needed someone for all the 'fine print' of their project. And seeing that she was a perfectionist, she seemed like the most capable person for the job. Sirius, who had been acting jittery the majority of the morning, spoke up first.

"Well?" he asked nervously.

"This is…incredible! I mean, when you said you wanted spectacular, I didn't even imagine _anything_ close to this! This is just…breath-taking!" she hugged each of the boys in turn, thanking them for making her back yard so beautiful.

"Thanks mum". Sirius said smiling. He paused for a second to allow a fraction of hope-light to shine over his Evangeline prospect. Mrs. Potter made to set the food up, and the boys went off in search of the girls. Remus took over the upstairs to find Harmony, while Sirius searched the downstairs for Evangeline.

He found her moments later in the living room, sleeping soundlessly on the couch. He made a mental note of how beautiful she looked when she was asleep, her shiny black curls framing her angelic face. He sighed and knelt down next to her. There was that scent again.

_Curse you and your tantalizing curls that love to torture me,_ he thought. _Your endless blue eyes, your enchanting smile, and heart-stopping laugh, breathtaking…_ for the second time that day, Sirius shook the image from his head. _There should be laws against being born this beautiful._ He thought bitterly. _All it's good for is torturing poor souls like me…_

Taking a deep breath, Sirius gently started to shake her by the shoulders.

"Evangeline…" he said. "Evie, wake up…"

* * *

Evangeline POV

The main thing on Evangeline's mind, was how tired she was. She and Moe (Sirius and James had taken to giving the girls nicknames), had stayed up all of the previous night making decorations. Thankfully, they had finished ahead of schedule, and Evangeline still had time for a nap. After all, it was only three minutes to eleven, and James and Lily weren't due till 3:00.

The couch was the first thing she noticed in her sleep induced stupor, and she was out before her head hit the pillow.

Flashback

"Hermione, are…are you all right?" she looked so pale; like she had been infected with some sickening illness. Hermione made no notice that she had even heard him. Harry walked over, and stood in front of her. When he looked into her eyes, he saw nothing. Usually, he could read her feelings through her eyes, something she had taught him, but today, he could see nothing in them.

_"Why would you ask me if _I'm_ ok" she said, still not moving. "When you aren't exactly doing so hot yourself?"_

_"Well, I'm not the one blaming myself, now am I?" he spoke softly, but his words were harsh. _

_"What exactly is that supposed to mean Harry?"_

_"Hermione, you're always blaming yourself for things, and they're not even your fault. There is nothing you could have, or can do now about it!" _

_"And how would you know?" she snapped. _

_"Because I can rightfully say that I _was_ the cause of at least three people's death, Hermione!"_

Someone was shaking her, but she wasn't done.

_"Oh, so I guess that means that only the great_ Harry Potter_ is allowed to hate himself!"_

_"That's not what I meant Hermione, and you know it!"_

Whoever was shaking her, really needed to stop. She wasn't finished with Harry.

_"Oh really? Than tell me Harry, what is it supposed to mean? That I don't _really_ know what it feels like? That I don't have the right to be upset, because I'm not as important as you are? Or maybe it means that I don't fully understand what it feels like to lose everything I hold dear. Which is it Harry?"_

_"Hermione, now you're just over exaggerating things!" _

_"_Over exaggerating_ things? Yeah, you're one to talk! Would you like me to remind you of how you acted in Dumbledore's office, at the end of our fifth year?"_

Sirius frowned. Evangeline wouldn't wake up, and she didn't seem to be enjoying her sleep, either. He withdrew his hand from her shoulder and watched her for a second. Her brow was furrowed; she was shifting around in her sleep, and muttering a few inaudible words every now and then. Again, Sirius reached for her shoulder, to attempt to wake her.

However, when he touched her arm, there was a flash, and everything went black. He could hear voices; two of them, and they were arguing over something.

"That's not what I meant, Hermione and you know it!" Sirius could see some of his surroundings now, including the two people who were arguing. Everything was blurry, so he couldn't quite tell exactly where he was, but if he had to guess, he would say it was someone's apartment. Just as the other person started to speak, his vision cleared, and he got his first glimpse at the couple.

"Oh really? Than tell me Harry, what is it supposed to mean? That I don't really know what it feels like? That I don't have the right to be upset, because I'm not as important as you are? Or maybe it means that I don't fully understand what it feels like to lose everything I hold dear. Which is it Harry?"

The girl who had just spoken had mousy brown hair that reached just between her elbows and waist in long twisty curls. Her honey brown eyes suggested that she had been crying recently, and was crying as she yelled at the man in front of her.

The man, whom Sirius gathered was called Harry, had also obviously been crying as well. His emerald eyes were red rimmed and flashed in anger. They seemed oddly familiar. There was a spark in them that he couldn't quite place. Sirius found it a little strange that the man in front of him bore a striking similarity to James, but he could tell it wasn't _really_ James. He was slightly shorter than James was, and although he was extremely built, he looked as though he lost a great deal of weight, in a very short time. His hair was quite messy, but it was longer than James' and reached his chin.

"Hermione, now your just over exaggerating things!" ah, the girl had a name. Sirius thought that they looked like they could be a couple, but now, they were acting like enemies.

"_Over exaggerating_ things? Oh yeah you're one to talk! Would you like me to remind you of how you acted in Dumbledore's office, at the end of our fifth year?"

_That_ threw Sirius off. He had never seen these people before, so they couldn't be current students at Hogwarts. But the girl called Hermione had mentioned being in Dumbledore's office at the end of their fifth year.

_Maybe they graduated before I knew them_. Sirius thought. _But that cant be possible. They don't seem to be any older than I am. _However, what the girl called Hermione did next, was even more shocking.

She picked up the nearest item she could find, and threw it as hard as she could against the wall, mere inches away from Harry's head. And she did this repeatedly, breaking glass, and screaming in frustration with each broken item. Harry was trying to get her to stop. Sirius even came forward from his hiding spot and attempted to grab her arms.

Unfortunately, he could not be seen, heard, nor could he touch anything. _Figures_, he thought. _Just an innocent bystander, who gets to watch all the fun; joy. _However, he reclaimed his previous statement as Hermione hurtled a bottle of firewhiskey through his head.

"Hermione, _stop it!_" Harry had finally gotten close enough to her to grab her hand. "You're acting childish!" the hand that wasn't being held, slapped the other side of Harry's face. Clearly he hadn't expected that, because he promptly let go of her hand, and touched the side of his face.

"Yeah that's right Harry, I hit you. And I'm ashamed to say that I didn't do it sooner!"

"You know what, Hermione? You're not the only one suffering, okay! I've had losses too!"

"I knew it!" she screamed at him. Sirius was at a complete loss as to what it was she discovered, and apparently, Harry was too. "I knew you would start on your act. ' oh poor me, I lost my parents before I knew them, Voldemort has been trying to kill me since birth, and my godfather died because I wouldn't learn Occlumency. Now my best friend has been captured by Death Eaters, and I may never see him alive again!"

Sirius was starting to like this girl less by the minute. It sounded as though Harry had had things rough his whole life. Why was Hermione was upset at him for having a bad life? However, he did have to wonder why Voldemort had been out to get him since birth.

"Let me tell you something Harry! I lost my parents two weeks ago, so we're on the same page there. I'm sure I loved Sirius just as much as you did, considering I was the one who helped you save him when we were 13",

Wait, she wasn't talking about _him_ was she? Surely, she couldn't be, because one: he had no idea who these people were and two: as far as he knew, he wasn't in any situation that he needed to be rescued from. Therefore, they must be talking about another Sirius.

"Oh yeah" Hermione continued. "I'm pretty sure the best friend that was just captured by death eaters, is my best friend as well. And as for Voldemort being out to get you, we both know that he doesn't want me dead as much as he wants _you_ dead, but I _guarantee_ you, that I signed my life over when you and Ron saved me, Halloween, six years ago. I just wanted you to remember that you aren't alone in this Harry. We've been in this together for too long. Just remember, that you are not always the reason people have died".

Maybe it was just him, but Sirius thought there was something a little contradictory about her statement.

"Ok, when did we switch roles? Because when this argument started, I distinctly remember you screaming at me, that I didn't exactly know what it was like to be the cause of someone dying."

"You know what Harry, I don't care what you tell me, I will always know that he was captured, because of me. You have to understand how much of your blaming Ron and I put up with. Let someone else have a turn!"

Sirius chuckled slightly, but neither Harry nor Hermione found it funny.

"It's not your fault, Hermione."

"Oh _lord, _Harry, can you not let it be! I don't care what you have to say about it! We _both _know why he's not standing here with us!"

Sirius didn't know all of the details, but he had almost got the whole story.

"No, no, Hermione shut up!" Hermione looked taken aback. Sirius was shocked as well. "I could care less whether you believe me or not, you're going to listen to me, even if it's the last thing you do! You had no control over what Voldemort made you do, while you were under the imperius curse. That's out of your control. It's not your fault that Voldemort attacked your house, and killed your parents, because of me. It's not your fault that Sirius died. And it's not your fault that you lost a chance at a normal life."

Sirius mouth was literally open in shock. How could two people, who had life so hard, be willing to even stand? It was like watching a heart break into pieces.

"That", Harry continued, moving closer to Hermione. "Is my fault. I'm so sorry what befriending me has done to you, and how it has threatened your life. However, I do want you to know that if had the opportunity to relive that one day, I would do it all over again".

Hermione and Sirius both looked up at him in shock. "I'm sorry Hermione, but I would chose, to save you all over again. It might be selfish, but my life would've been completely different without you. No I take that back, I would've been dead without you."

Sirius chuckled to himself, wondering whether he was hitting on her, or if he actually meant it.

"Fluffy would have ripped me to shreds, the devils snare would've killed Ron and I, and I definitely would have ended up drinking some form of poison that night…" Hermione smiled weakly, tears still falling.

_Wow, _Sirius thought. _They have lived quite the adventurous life. I'd like to meet them someday. _In Sirius' opinion, now would be the perfect time to kiss her, but he didn't think Harry would. It was the perfect timing though, with them both making up from a _seriously_ bad argument, _and_ they were standing _quite _close together.

Therefore, when Harry actually did lean down and kiss her, Sirius was quite shocked. Apparently, Hermione was too; she seemed too shocked to move at first, but then pulled back and looked into his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione." Harry said, a tear falling onto his cheek. Hermione let out a sob, and pulled him into a tight embrace. They stood there for a moment before…

_BOOM!_

The entire back of the apartment blew away, and the whole building shook. Sirius ran forward to see what in the world had happened, when things started to become blurry again.

"No, no, _no!_" Sirius cried out in frustration. "Come on! Not now!" but it was too late, and the next thing he knew he was staring at the face with a sleeping Evangeline. His hand was still resting on her shoulder, where he had been planning on rousing her. His body was trembling.

What had just happened? More importantly, _why_ had it happened? Did he just see, what Evangeline had been dreaming?

_No,_ he thought. _She wasn't anywhere in the apartment. It couldn't have been her dream, could it? _Concluding that he would ask James about it later that night, he gently shook Evangeline's shoulder once more. This time, she responded. She frowned, and opened her eyes, to see who the culprit was.

* * *

Evangeline POV

The explosion had shaken the building, but she didn't remember it being _this_ bad. Everything had gone black, but she was still shaking. Or someone was shaking her; and calling her name as well.

"Evie, come on, sleepy, wake up."

The voice was a little distant, but she thought it sounded like Sirius. _He's so sweet…_ Evangeline thought before opening her eyes.

* * *

Sirius POV

Sirius smiled at the look on Evangeline's face. He loved how she looked right after she woke up. She blinked at him and frowned, obviously trying to focus on face. Sirius smiled at her.

"No, I will not get up Sirius." She said glaring at him. "I was up all night…"

"Well," he replied still smiling. "I _did_ warn you about going to wild parties all night long."

"Oh ha ha, yes that sounds exactly like something I'd do. Besides, you didn't really warn me about going to wild parties."

"Oh? What was it then, because I could've sworn that's what I told you."

"No, there's quite a difference. One: you _advised_ me not to go to wild parties with James, because he'll keep you up all night. And two: I was _working_ all night long." Sirius' expression grew stern.

"Evangeline, you aren't… researching again are you?" Evangeline looked shocked.

"No! Absolutely not, I was planning a surprise party for James and Lily with Harmony. We were up all night working on decorations!" Sirius visibly relaxed. Nobody really like to discuss what had happened to Evangeline over the summer, but he _had_ to be sure that she wasn't secretly studying by night.

"Ah," Sirius said, nodding. They were silent for a minute or so, when Sirius smiled mischievously. "Oh well", he said looking at her with an amused expression on his face. "At least I know that _I_ will officially be kicking _your_ butt, and you can't say anything about it."

Before Evangeline had been given a clean bill of health, Dumbledore had advised him of thinking up unique things that they could do to keep the girls distracted from their situation. He claimed it would help encourage the grieving process until it was forgotten from their everyday minds. So Sirius did just that; he and Evie had developed a game, using wooden cooking utensils. The concept of the game was to be the last one standing. Using your wooden utensil, you would fight the other person, or persons, and, by means of tackling, try to be the last one standing.

"Oh don't even dream about." Evie said, smiling back. "You _know_ I will bring you down; it is inevitable."

"Uh huh, yeah, we'll see about that. However, until that time comes, I need you to stand, and come with me."

"Why?"

"You'll see; it's a surprise. Come on get up! Up! Up!" grumbling, Evie got to her feet. Sirius moved to stand behind her, and placed his hands over her eyes. Carefully, he led her towards the backyard. Right before he got to the door, however, he turned and led her into the dining room. He wanted her to be lost and confused when he got outside, so he led her around the house, going no place in particular.

"Sirius, _where_ are we going?" Evie asked.

"Just wait, you'll see".

"Surely it doesn't take _this _long to get there?"

"No, but I am trying to confuse you."

"Well, your doing a good job so far."

"Thank you! Ok, we're almost there; do you trust me?"

"Why? Is there a reason that I shouldn't?"

"No, I just want to know…"

"If I say yes, will I regret it later?"

"I really hope not."

"Well then, yes I trust you…" Sirius could feel her face cringing under his hands.

"Great! Now I'm gonna take my hands away, but only if you promise not to peek." She nodded against his hands, and he slowly pulled them away. Then in one swift movement, he picked her up bridal style, and carried her towards the back door. She screamed at the sudden move, and held onto his shoulders in a death grip.

"Sirius!" she said, breathing a little faster.

"Yes, my dear? Even though her eyes were closed, he could tell she was rolling them.

"You could have at least warned me!"

"I did! Why do you think I asked you if you trusted me? I wouldn't have done it, if you said no…"

"Yeah well…" she said. Sirius laughed. "I don't find anything amusing about this!"

"I do", he said bluntly. "I could throw you into a huge pile of mud, and you'd never see it coming." He cackled, and Evie put her arms around his next, holding herself closer to him. It surprised him, but he wasn't exactly going to complain about it.

"You wouldn't dare" she threatened.

"On the contrary, I think I might."

"I would pull you in with me!" Sirius laughed again.

"I think it might just be worth it…"

"Sirius, don't you dare!" Sirius was outside, and had been standing in the same spot for a while now. He was just enjoying the presence of Evangeline in his arms too much to put her down; yet…

"I swear, if you do it I will hex you so bad…"

"Like I said earlier, it might just be worth it." He made swinging motions, like he was about to toss her in, and counted each one.

"One…"

"Sirius, _don't_!"

"Two…"

"Oh please, oh please, oh please, don't throw me in!"

"Aww, come on mate, that might just be a little too harsh." The voice startled Sirius so much, he actually jumped a little. Evangeline had already opened her eyes, and was smiling at him.

"A little jumpy this morning?" she asked. Sirius rolled his eyes at her. Sirius turned around and was shocked to see James there.

"Prongs! Aren't you, uh… supposed to be with Lily?"

"Well I was, we just got bored. Diagon Alley gets boring after the first two hours, so we came home early… but Anyways, thanks a bunch, Evangeline, for the surprise party!" Evangeline put her palm to her forehead.

"Oh no! I forgot about it! I'm sorry!" James smiled.

"Don't worry about, it looks like you've been a little preoccupied."

"No, I _was_ asleep, until _somebody _decided to wake me up, for some surprise, that I have yet to receive." Evangeline looked at Sirius expectantly, and James shot a look at him over Evangeline's shoulder that clearly said 'its about time…' Sirius rolled his eyes at him, and looked back at Evangeline, who had a skeptical look on her face.

"I will give it to you, but you have to close your eyes again." She raised an eyebrow at him. "I promise it has nothing to do with mud". She smiled and closed her eyes. Sirius motioned for James to follow, and walked towards they're hidden surprise. Before he rounded the corner, he turned to James and put a finger over his own lips. He set Evangeline down on her feet, and placed his hands over her eyes once more. James audibly gasped, and was staring open-mouthed at his newly transformed backyard.

"Sirius, am I ever going to see-" Sirius removed his hands from her eyes, and placed them uncertainly on the sides of her shoulders. Evangeline gasped; he had to admit it _was_ quite spectacular.

He and Remus had literally transformed that half of the backyard, into a tropical garden. It even had three stone walkways. One that went around a water fountain, weaving in and out of the forest surrounding the house, one that lead to a huge clearing in the forest, and one that was a secret entrance to the front yard, incase you got locked out.

"Remus and I did all this," he said, standing nervously with his hands behind his back, waiting for her judgement. "Think of it as a gift to you and Harmony, to show how grateful we are to have befriended you". Evangeline turned around gave him a bone-crushing hug, which he returned happily.

_One task completed, one more to go_, he thought.

The rest of the day was spent playing games, talking laughing; eating all the food, more games, and even more laughing. Before they even realized it, the sun was going down.

"Oh my gosh!" Lily exclaimed. "Look how late it's gotten!" James' eyebrows had disappeared, while everyone else all said 'wow'. Mrs. Potter came out, closely followed by her husband, and both were beaming at the six teens they considered children.

"Hey Sirius," Mr. Potter said, wearing the same sly look James and Harry both used, in many occasions.

"Yeah dad?"

"Do you remember, earlier today when we were building the path for the clearing, what you said you'd like to do one day?"

"Yeah," Sirius said slowly.

"Well, why don't you do that tonight, and invite everyone else to join you?" realization struck Sirius' face, and he grinned.

"Okay, thanks!" Mr. and Mrs. Potter nodded.

"We'll go get the stuff ready!" Mrs. Potter said, before leaving Sirius to explain. He turned to face the group.

"Who's up for staying up all night long?" Lily, James, and Remus beamed and nodded enthusiastically. Harmony and Evangeline, however, groaned.

"Sirius!" Evangeline whined. "I don't think I can possibly make _another_ night of no sleep!" Harmony nodded in consent.

"Nonsense!" he exclaimed. "It's not my fault you were partying all night long!" Evangeline opened her mouth to retort, but Sirius cut her off. "And besides, you won't be going without sleep, because you already slept today, on the couch!" Evangeline rolled her eyes, and grumbled,

"Fine, but don't expect me to like this", Sirius beamed, pulled out his wand, and led the way into the forest.

Evangeline was walking a little behind Sirius, staring at the stars. Harmony and Remus were chatting merrily behind her, while James and Lily brought up the rear, fingers laced, and enjoying each other's presence. Every now and again, Sirius would glance at Evangeline.

She seemed to be in deep thought, staring at the stars. He wondered what was going through her mind.

"Evangeline?" he said, bringing her out of her trance.

"Yes, Sirius?" _do it now, you moron, just ask her!_

"Can I ask you something?" _come on Sirius, don't be afraid, just ask her! You'll regret it if you don't!_

"Yeah, go ahead." He slowed a little, and met her stride. She smiled at him; it was just a smile, but it made his head spin.

_How did you get so beautiful? It kills me!_ In truth, it only made him want her more. Unfortunately, she didn't know how much he really _did_ like her; at least he hoped so. Nevertheless, she really did look beautiful. The moon was half-full, and was a beautiful reflection in her crystal blue eyes. Her raven curls were shining with the bright white light.

He realized then, that he had stopped walking. Evangeline, who was still waiting for him to ask her his question, stopped as well. He knew he was staring at her, but she so…entranced him, he couldn't stop.

* * *

Evangeline POV

She was _really_ tired, but Evangeline had decided to stay up. Sirius broke into a smile so big, she swore she could see all of his teeth. He looked so ecstatic at the idea that he practically skipped. The six of them set off on the stone walkway, Sirius in the lead, followed closely by Evangeline. She glanced at the stars, but found that she couldn't look away. They held a certain memory within them…

She didn't want to remember anything. She wanted to forget everything that had happened to her; to never look back. She hated herself for what happened. Somehow, she found that she hated Harry for it.

"Evangeline?" she heard Sirius ask. She turned to face him.

"Yes Sirius?" she heard herself ask.

"Can I ask you something?" he spoke slowly, as though debating with himself. Evangeline wore an amused expression, which Sirius didn't see because he was still ahead of her.

"Yeah, go ahead." Sirius slowed down, and matched her stride. She smiled at him, waiting for her question. He didn't answer, though. Instead he stopped walking all together, and just stared at her. The odd thing about it was he wasn't staring at her in a way that suggested he was checking her out. No, he was looking in her eyes with such intensity, that she almost wanted to look away.

_He's studying me! _He was trying to read her, and it looked as though he was succeeding. The very idea of Sirius reading her emotions scared her. So bad in fact, that she actually moved a step backward.

* * *

Sirius POV

She was hiding something, and he knew it. Actually, he thought she might be hiding _many_ things, but tonight he saw it again; that look in her eye. It happened a lot; mostly when she was thinking. He could just look at her and see the pain within, something that was secretly eating her from the inside out.

He knew she would never tell. He could see that in her eyes as well. She would plaster on a smile, and hide the _real_ Evangeline Grace. But something in her eyes changed. For a moment, she looked intrigued, but now she looked intimidated.

She moved backwards, now looking as though he might hurt her.

"Evangeline", he breathed in a small voice, taking a step towards her. He reached out his hand towards her shoulder.

"Don't," she said, pulling her arm out of reach. Sirius paused with his hand in the air, and slowly brought it back down.

"I-I didn't-"

"Don't," she repeated. "Look at me like that." Sirius was so shocked, he was at a complete loss for words.

"I-you-"

"please don't look at me like that Sirius." She was whispering, and tears fell silently onto the stone walkway below.

"I- I'm sorry" he stammered. "I didn't kno-"

"only one other person has ever looked at me like that." She interrupted. "and it was the look he gave me as he died.

"Evangeline, I- I am so sorry. I didn't know."

"that's okay," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. It was no use though, seeing as she was crying openly. "nobody does. I've never told anyone that. It frightens me; I don't know why though…its silly." Sirius pulled her into a hug.

"what do you have to fear?" he whispered into her hair. She didn't answer, but held onto him tighter, tears flowing faster.

"everything" she breathed into his chest. It was so quiet, that Sirius was lucky he even heard her in the first place. He pulled back from her, cupped her face in his hands, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"what would you say, to forgetting about the past, and having some fun?" she smiled that same smile that entranced him before.

"I would love that." She said. He held out his arm, which she accepted, giggling softly.

"madam," he said, leading her down the stone walkway towards the clearing, and to their friends that had long since deserted them.

_I can't do it,_ he thought to himself. _I can't ask her. _

_'why not?' _he was arguing with himself again. _This would make her happy, and she would forget about her past._

_No, I don't think it's that simple. She recoiled from me, when I looked at her. she sees something in me that frightens her. not to mention, she's completely secretive. I mean really, she won't tell anyone anything. _

_She told _you_ something just a minute ago._

Yeah well, that was only because she wanted me to stay away from her.

_Then why did she take your arm?_

Okay, so maybe she didn't hate him, she only feared him. _I think I'd prefer hate_, He thought miserably.

"what was your question?" Evangeline asked suddenly, startling him.

"my question?"

"yes, you said, 'can I ask you something' and I said yes, but you never asked me anything…" _oh. _

"oh!, I'm sorry I forgot." He was trying to avoid answering her, because he wasn't going to ask her. so he either had to: completely avoid the question all together, or he could make up a new one.

"that's okay. What was it?" _crap!_ He thought. He was desperately trying to find an alternate question when an idea struck him.

"well, I think it's turned into more than one question."

"that's fine, as long as I get to drill you next." Sirius gave her a half smile.

"earlier today, when I asked you if you trusted me, did you really mean yes?"

"Sirius, it's not _you_ I'm afraid of. Please remember that. And in answer to your question, yes I did mean it; because I do trust you." Sirius smiled, and sighed in relief. "any more questions?"

"yes, actually, there are. Have you heard of the muggle game truth-or-dare?" Evangeline gave him a wary look.

"yes, but if you expect me to play truth or dare with you, I think you might be over estimating me."

"I'll remember that in the future. No, actually, it's a lot like it, except that you only do the truth part."

"so you sit down, and ask each other crazy questions, and contemplate whether or not the person really is telling the truth?"

"that's actually pretty close. See, James, and I made up a version. The person asking the question, has to decide if your answer was a lie or not. If the person really was lying, then you'd get to dare them to do anything you wanted. However, if they were telling the truth, then they get to dare you. Make any sense?"

"yes, but why are you telling me this?"

"because I was going to ask you to play it with me". Evangeline thought a while before answering,

"why not, Sirius?" she said as his face split into a huge grin.

"great! Oh, here we are!" they had entered the clearing, where James, Lily, Remus, and Harmony were chatting away while waiting for them. A fire had been lit in the direct center of the clearing, giving everything an orange glow.

"Hey!" everyone yelled as soon as they spotted the two. James patted a patch of grass next to him, and motioned for Sirius and Evangeline to come sit next to him.

As soon as Sirius sat down however, Mr. And Mrs. Potter came out of the woods, closely followed by six sleeping bags, four bags of marshmallows, a thermos for each of them, that had been charmed to never empty, a deck of cards, Remus' camera, and their game of risk.

Sirius grumbled and made a face at Evangeline. "I just sat down! Really, you couldn't have picked a better time…" Evangeline smiled and joined in helping set up their 'camp'. James and Sirius spent a good ten minutes transfiguring rocks and blades of grass into things they thought might become useful. When they had finished, Sirius thought it was quite the set up. Six chairs lined the fire, two picnic tables were on opposite sides of the fire, on bearing food and drinks, the other bearing the board games, and cards.

Evangeline POV

_Harry ways right,_ Evangeline thought while watching James and Sirius transfigure the tiniest things into picnic tables and chairs. They were having some kind of 'I'm better then you' battle. _James was good at transfiguration, and Sirius isn't that bad either._

Sirius caught her eye and beamed at her. she smiled back, making a mental note to ask Remus what happened to his ecstatic personality when she got back to her own time. James literally skipped over to Lily and kissed her. Remus had asked Evangeline to be in charge of his camera, and that he would shoot her if she didn't take a lot of pictures. So she pulled the camera up to her face, and

_CLICK!_

Lily turned to see what caused the flash and glared at Evangeline. Her expression changed when James grabbed her hand, and kissed her cheek, causing Lily to giggle. Evangeline took this as another opportunity to,

_CLICK!_

Evangeline gave Lily a sarcastic 'oops!' expression, before turning and sprinting away from her.

"Lily! Stop! Please it was only a picture!" she was laughing and pleading at the same time.

"give me the bloody camera!" she yelled back, smiling as big as Evangeline. The remaining four of the group, (Mr. And Mrs. Potter had headed back to the manor), sat down in their chair, and watched in amusement as Lily continued to chase Evangeline around the clearing.

"I'll never let you have it!" she taunted back. On her way past Remus, Evangeline secretly handed him the camera. Her intention was for Remus to hold onto it, to keep it from Lily. She was _not_ expecting him to take pictures of her being chased by Lily.

"good going, Moony!"

"that's gonna be a good one!"

Evangeline was now running around the fire in circles. She glanced over her shoulder to see how close Lily was, and stopped. Lily wasn't there. She started walking backward thinking Lily was only trying to gain on her, but when she turned around,

_BOO!_

Evangeline screamed bloody murder, hands flying up to her mouth. She heard the familiar _CLICK! _of Remus' camera and turned to see the five of them grinning evilly at her.

"_that_ is going in the scrapbook, Moony." Sirius said, trying not to laugh.

"what scrapbook?" Evangeline asked nervously, thinking they might have used the word 'scrapbook' instead of 'yearbook'.

"I make one every year," Remus said, beaming at her. "filled with pictures throughout the entire year."

"great". Evangeline said, rolling her eyes.

"cheer up!" Sirius said, as Evangeline arched an eyebrow. "you'll forget all about it! That is, until you see it at the end of the year of course."

"yeah, that makes me feel _loads_ better." She said sarcastically.

The rest of the night passed in a blur. Evangeline taught James, Sirius, and Harmony how to play poker, 7 card stud, and of course, the classic game of black-jack. They had consumed all four bags of marshmallows, played another gruesome round of Risk, taken more pictures, and were back to playing black jack. The boys and Lily looked at Evangeline in amazement.

"how do remember how to play all of these different games?" James asked her. Evangeline smiled, and whispered in Harmony's ear;

"it's kind of odd, that we're teaching the two people who taught us how to play all these games…" Harmony grinned and nodded.

"hey! No whispering! That's considered cheating!"

"actually James, no it's not." Evangeline said. "Sirius, it's your go." Sirius looked down at his cards thinking hard.

"hit me." He said, as though he almost regretted it. Evangeline would've been willing to bet all her money that Sirius was hitting on sixteen. He groaned.

"bust?" James asked. Sirius nodded and put down his two original cards.

_Ha!_ Evangeline thought to herself. Sirius had set down a king and a six. Even before they group saw his third card, they all groaned.

"man, I _hate_ getting stuck on sixteen!"

"your dead either way!"

"it's just that middle card…"

"so come on Padfoot, what's the third card?" Sirius threw down his third card; a five.

"wait," James said slowly. "wouldn't that be-"

"ha!" Sirius exclaimed, grinning like a madman. "I played you! Twenty-one, baby! Woo!" Harmony banged her fist on the table.

"that is so not cool!" she exclaimed, setting her cards down on the table. A king, and a one-eyed jack; so close. "man, I hate you Sirius! I bet almost everything I had!" Sirius merely cackled evilly, pulled his pile of galleons toward him, and then proceeded to do a victory dance.

"Woo! Oh yeah, I'm rich! Who be rich? I be! Woo!" Evangeline rolled her eyes.

"that is the _last_ time _you_ get marshmallows after 10:00 at night." Evangeline said. Sirius gave her his best pouty lip and said,

"but, but, why not?"

"because you're officially too rich!"

"well, I say, that's not fair."

"Aww, you poor baby, you'll get over it." Evangeline said, patting the top of Sirius' head. Remus, who had put a silencing charm on his camera a while ago, was taking pictures like mad, without disturbing anything.

As the sun started to rise, they each separated into groups, and started talking. Sirius had told Evangeline that she still owed him a game of 'Truth or Dare Marauder Style', and was now thinking of a good question to ask her.

"okay, I got one! How many boyfriends have you had?"

"boyfriends, hmm… I never really had an official boyfriend, I mean, one of my friends kissed me once, but it never… got a chance to go any further…" Sirius decided not to press _that_ subject.

"so you've never actually had a boyfriend? Wow, I find that hard to believe, but I think you're actually telling the truth."

"good for you I was, cause I had something _really_ good lined up!"

"okay, okay. Your turn!"

"hmm… have you ever been in love?" Sirius' face fell, and his eyes dimmed. Immediately after saying it, she regretted it.

"yes, actually, I have." His reply shocked her; she had always been told that Sirius was a 'ladies man'. Before he could even think about elaborating, Evangeline spoke.

"well, I'm definitely believing that one… your turn!" Sirius smiled at her amazing ability to change subjects.

"okay… what would you say to me, if I asked you on a date?" Evangeline gasped. Surely, he was only asking her for the sake of the game, right? He didn't _really_ want to ask her out, did he? She chose her next words carefully. _Remember Hermione, mind over matter, minder over matter!_

"I… would tell you that I'm flattered, but I cant."

"and what would you say if I asked you why?"

"I would tell you… that I am… not supposed to." Evangeline cringed under his stare.

"not supposed to date _me_, or not supposed to date in general?"

"in general"

"that makes no sense. Your 18, your of age, and you…live on your own now. Why are you not _supposed_ to date?"

"because Dumbledore suggested that I don't." she knew it was coming; now all she had to do was wait for him to explode.

"Dumbledore…lets get this straight, _Dumbledore_ asked you not to? Why on _earth_ would he do that?"

"because". She replied stiffly.

"because…" he said slowly. "that's the only reason you can give me? That's the best reason you can give me?"

"yeah Sirius, that's the best reason I can give you!" they were talking now probably louder than they were intending, and the others had started to look on.

"well what the bloody hell is that supposed to tell me? Sorry Sirius, the girl you've been hoping would like you back for a month and a half can go out with you because?"

"hey, look you're not the only person I've had to say this to!"

"oh yeah, right, like I'm gonna believe _that_."

Sirius POV

"and what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Sirius looked at her shocked. That phrase triggered something in something in his memory.

"_and what exactly is that supposed to mean, Harry?"_ then, Hermione's face flashed over Evangeline's, and despite the color differences, they looked, exactly alike.

"oh my gosh, why didn't I see it before?"

"see what?"

"I was talking to myself"

"I gathered that." Her tone was cold, much like that of Hermione's, when she was yelling at Harry.

"I don't understand you. You keep everything about you hidden away so no one can get close to you. You've built a wall so high Evangeline, that no one can get over!"

"ok Sirius, I'll give you your reason. I am a highly qualified member, of the Order of The Phoenix." Everyone, including Harmony gasped. "I cannot date you, because I am on an important mission that I have been working on for the past four months. I failed my first mission, because of a boy. Unfortunately, that mission had to do with the safety of _your_ school. My failure nearly led to the death of everyone you know."

"Evangeline," Harmony said quietly, but with a seriousness no one dared to cross. "Evangeline, that's enough."

* * *

Evangeline POV

She wasn't completely dishonest, because the failure of that mission nearly _did_ result in the death of every living person in Hogwarts.

"you don't seem like the type of person who would fail." Sirius said giving her an odd look. "that is, if you really even _are_ a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

"and now you don't believe me! Oh, that's just wonderful."

"well, it is a little hard to grasp. Is that why you nearly worked yourself to death? Was it because of the mission you 'failed' or maybe of one you're afraid of failing?"

"I don't see how it's any of your business!"

"yeah well, I do. You had us scared to death! You should have seen Harmony, she was in a right state."

"once again, it is none of your business!"

"one day, Evangeline, you'll understand that having people who care for you, is more important than completing some mission. I hope that days comes soon for you." Sirius stared at her, waiting for a reply. Evangeline never gave him one though, and instead walked right out of the clearing toward the Manor.

"Evangeline, where have you been?" Harmony asked. It was nearly two hours since Evangeline left the clearing, retreating back to the her bedroom. "are you feeling alright?"

"yeah… I think it might just be lack of sleep… how was your night?" She knew that Harmony would sense her changing the subject to avoid the topic of Sirius, but she didn't care. She looked at Evangeline skeptically for a moment and it seemed as though she had reached a conclusion in her mind.

"It went really well. Remus and I talked mostly, but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. "

"that sounds great, Harmony".

"yeah, it's weird how much different the Sirius and Remus we know are. I never would've imagined the younger Remus was like this." she sensed that Harmony was attempting to make Sirius the topic once more, but she refused to allow it.

"yeah I know what you mean."

"well," she started hesitantly. "Remus asked me out, and I said yes…" Harmony was smiling, but Evangeline sucked in a sharp breath. "what do you think?"

"well it would be-"

"Evangeline, before you say anything, I already know how you feel about changing the past."

"well you know that we cant!"

"I cant _believe_ you." Harmony said in a deadly calm voice before throwing Evangeline a dirty look, and stomping out of the bedroom. Evangeline ran after her.

"Moe, Moe wait! Harmony!" Harmony was literally running from her; so, Evangeline was running to catch up.

"no, I have no desire to talk to you!" she replied, starting down the stairs. Evangeline jumped the last few stairs, and followed her towards the kitchen.

"Moe, Evie! I'm making a… why are you running?" Mrs. Potter asked, but they barely heard her. "Peter's here, if you'd like to say hello!" still they ignored her.

"Harmony!" they reached the living room, where James, and Lily were conversing in a corner. Evangeline finally caught up with her, and grabbed her hand to stop her.

"get off me, Evangeline." She said dangerously. That was a tone you _never_ messed with. Reluctantly, she let go of Harmony's arm.

"I don't care what you've got to say" she said, her tone still dangerous and intimidating. They now had the attention of James, Lily, Peter, Mrs. Potter. Funnily enough, Sirius and Remus were nowhere to be found.

"you _know_ you cant do this Harmony!"

"well I don't care anymore! How do you want me to live my life while we're here?"

"I would expect you not to ignore our present circumstance."

"yeah, whatever." and without another word, Harmony walked right out the front door, leaving a stunned Evangeline gaping after her. a few seconds crawled by before Evangeline yelled out,

"Harmony, wait!" and followed her path out the front door.

Little did either of them know the unfortunate events that were about to happen…

* * *

A/N: muahahahaha! Sooo, there it is, chapter 11 anyways, please review, I would appreciate it lots. Oh, and if you have any tips, or comments on what you think I should do, review. Thank you so much for the people who reviewed! Keep up the good work! I want you to know, that I literally stayed up ALL NIGHT last night and wrote this chapter. And the night before that, I wrote the last chapter I updated. So I have literally been up for….nearly 70 hours. Yeah, I really wanted to update before I leave again. I am FINALLY LEAVING FLORIDA! YAY! I get to home! This is the LONGEST chapter I have ever written. Please review!

Anyways enjoy!


	12. Disappear

Chapter 12: Disappear

Sirius POV

Sirius was cleaning up the bedroom that he, James, and Remus now shared. He would've preferred to do something else, but he didn't know if he could stand being anywhere near Evangeline, and he needed to do something to clear his mind.

There was something unexplainable about her that captivated him, and he couldn't make himself understand the reason she had refused him. James had eventually convinced him that Evangeline, as well as Harmony _were_ both members of the Order, and had been told not to tell anyone. They were already a top priority on Voldemort's 'capture and kill' list, so secrecy was vital. Sirius put on a somewhat convincing act of being angry with her turning him down, but secretly he was furious with himself for the way he talked to her, and for how he most likely made her feel. He wanted to win her affection, not push her away.

And still her responses to his advances made him more confused than he ever was about his own feelings for her. What mission could be so difficult, that Dumbledore himself would forbid her to even date someone? She had to be around the same age as he, which would make her about 18, or nearly anyway, which already placed her as a legal adult capable of making her own decisions. But this only raised more questions in his mind; what was Dumbledore doing giving Evangeline orders? Or better yet, why was he giving her the responsibility of someone much older? Why was she in the Order of the Phoenix? He had only recently been told (from Mr. Potter) what the Order of the Phoenix was, and that it had been started the previous year. Both he and James had been forbidden to have anything to do with the Order, so how was it that Evangeline weaseled her way into it?

But something else had been nagging him all day: Hermione, and her striking resemblance to Evangeline. He had no idea who Hermione was, but something about her made him uncomfortable. Like he was the pun of a joke that everyone else understood except for him. It probably wasn't any of his business anyways.

_If it were a relative, chances are, she would be living with them, instead of the Potter's. _He thought hard on the subject for a moment, before the sound of elevated voices caught him off guard, and he jumped a little.

"Moe, Moe! Harmony wait!" it was Evangeline. _Great, just what I need._

"no, I have no desire to talk to you!" the second voice sounded like Harmony; but the only thing they had ever argued over, was searching for that answer, whatever _that_ was.

Sirius debated with himself for a moment or two, wondering whether he should listen in on the argument.

"You know what's funny about their argument?" Remus asked, entering the bedroom and startling Sirius.

"What's that?"

"Their arguing about us." Sirius' head shot up.

"Why?"

"Well, I think part of it might be, that I asked Harmony out last night, and she said yes…"

"Moony, that's great! Why would that start an argument?"

"That's where you come in. I think that there are a few things that they just don't agree on…"

"Maybe we should go downstairs and try to put an end to it before it gets worse."

"I completely agree," Remus said, leading the way downstairs.

Once in the living room, Sirius realized there wasn't much they were going to be able to do. Harmony and Evangeline were facing off, both with looks so deadly dangerous, Sirius starting feeling a little intimidated.

"I would expect you not to ignore our present circumstance." Evangeline was saying. Sirius for no particular reason at all, found himself attempting to blend in with the shadows behind him.

"Yeah, whatever." and without another word, Harmony walked right out the front door, leaving Evangeline to gape after her.

"Harmony, wait!" she cried after a moment, and followed her out the front door. James looked over at where Remus, Sirius, and Peter now stood.

"Do either of _you_ know what this is about?" he asked, as though scolding them.

"Well, last night…" Sirius said hesitantly. "Evangeline and I got into an argument, but I seriously doubt it could have caused _this_ to happen. At least I don't think so…" James frowned. "I, uh, asked Evangeline out last night, and she rejected me." he finished rather quickly. Too quickly. Lily and James gave each other similar looks.

"Sirius," Lily said. "You have to realize that Harmony and Evangeline have many things that they aren't allowed to talk about…"

"Yeah, I realized that, last night" Sirius said coldly.

"Ok look, someone needs to go after them" James said. "Sirius, Remus, I don't think it'd be a wise idea for you to go. Lily?"

"No," she replied irritably. "I'm more than sure that they wouldn't listen to a thing I said."

"I'll go." Peter said suddenly. "I might be able to just calm them down, and get them to come back." James looked thoughtful for a moment, then said,

"Yeah, you do have a knack for getting people to calm down. Yeah Peter, that's a great idea!" Peter smiled halfway, and looked at his feet.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Sirius barked. "Go!" Peter nodded, and scrambled out the door. James gave Sirius a reproving look.

"Sirius, try going a little easier on him. You _know_ how much he looks up to you" Sirius merely grumbled in response. "Sirius, look, I'm sorry about Evangeline. I know how much you like her, but maybe it's for the best. I would hate for it to turn out like another Caroline fiasco…" James chuckled a little, but fell silent at the look on Sirius' face.

He paled, and immediately tensed at the sound of her name. He still had not gotten over her completely, and he didn't think he ever would. No person in the world could take that feeling away from him; not James, not even himself. There were times, of course, when he still tried to get her back, hoping that maybe she really loved him, and realized that she had been wrong. Unfortunately, she would always turn around and mock him in some way.

"Sirius? Mate, I'm sorry, I forgot how much you still-" James said, grasping Sirius' shoulder.

"I'm going to check on Evangeline"

"Sirius, don't-"

_"I'm going to check on Evangeline!" _He yelled, and walked out the front door. James sighed sadly.

"He still loves her," he said, looking around at Remus and Lily. "After all this time; I don't think he'll ever forget her either. I had hoped, that maybe Evangeline could help him forget about Caroline, but…"

"We all did, James." Remus said, looking at the door Sirius had just walked through with a pitiful expression on his face.

* * *

Evangeline POV

"Harmony!" Evangeline cried, running toward her. Harmony had run out the front door, and was walking down the road, to who-knows-where.

"I _really _don't want to talk to you, Evangeline!" she yelled back, not once slowing down, or glancing back at her. Evangeline was getting desperate; Harmony tended to act rash when she was upset. Something she and Harry always had in common.

"Ginerva Anne Weasley!" she had finally caught her attention. She turned around and glared at Evangeline.

"What, _Hermione Jane Granger?_" Hermione stopped to catch her breath.

"Don't- don't run from your problems, Ginny"

"And what would you know about running from your problems?" Hermione was prepared to answer, when Peter came up from nowhere.

"Are you guys alright? I just wanted to check on you…"

"Yeah, Peter." Ginny snapped. "We're fine."

"Well, that's good. I was worried for a minute" he took both of their hands in his. "We all care about you very much you know…" Peter closed his eyes for a moment, as though concentrating on something. The next thing Hermione knew, she had a feeling of being squeezed through a tight space.

* * *

Sirius POV

CRACK!

Sirius turned towards the noise, but there was nothing there. He looked down the street, but could see neither Harmony nor Evangeline. Scowling he set off to find them.


	13. Fears In The Darkness

Chapter 13: Fears in the Darkness

Sirius POV

Sirius was still scowling, and hardly paying any attention to what he was doing. He was hoping that he would be able to talk to Evangeline a little more (in a civilized manor) about their argument. He had also hoped to apologize; unfortunately, she was no where in sight.

_Maybe they went through the woods_, Sirius thought, and changed his direction walking. But through his pride and anger he felt the first prickling twinge of apprehension in his stomach. Something seemed out of place.

Ten minutes later, he arrived at the clearing. Scanning through their mess of the previous night, and trying not to focus on his conversation with Evangeline, Sirius looked for the girls.

"Harmony, Evangeline!" he called. "Are you here?" he listened, but the only noise he could hear were his own echo's. his Stomach twisted uncomfortably for a moment. No, something was absolutely out of place. They wouldn't have just vanished without letting someone know they were leaving; and he seriously doubted that they would've taken Peter with them. Completely lost as to what he should do, he decided to head back to the manor and share his thoughts with everyone else.

"Sirius, where have you been?" James asked, as Sirius walked into the living room once again. "We couldn't find you anywhere!"

"I was outside, in the woods. I thought they might have gone up to the clearing." James nodded. They sat in silence for nearly fifteen minutes before somebody spoke up.

"When do you think they'll be back?" Sirius questioned.

"I don't know, mate." Remus said softly.

"listen," Sirius started. "I think something's going on. It just…doesn't feel right. When I was looking for them, something was just…off about the situation." James eyed Sirius with a look that said he was trying to 'read' him.

"James, don't look at me like that." Sirius said, giving his friend a wary look.

"Sirius, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Uh… sure". James jerked his head to the hallway leading toward the dining room. Sirius followed, wondering what on earth James wanted to say, that could not be said in front of Remus or Lily. James continued walking, until he reached the bedroom that belonged to Lily, Harmony, and Evangeline, and walked inside.

"What are we doing in here?" Sirius asked as James closed the door, and locked it. Sirius, who had never been in the girls' room, looked over it quickly.

The beds had their owners' names over them, showing to whom they belonged to. Lily's bed was closest to the door, with a nightstand on the left side, and Evangeline's nightstand on the right, followed by her bed. A mess of clothes covered the gap in between the two beds; books, parchment, quills, and what looked like Evangeline's pillow. On the far wall, Harmony's maroon bedspread faced him. The most amazing thing, however, was incredible amount of spell work the girls had done to enchant the bedroom. The ceiling was what caught Sirius' attention first.

It was much like the ceiling of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, but instead of the seeing the sky, you saw the moving pictures that the girls had taken. The girls had somehow bewitched the pictures, and they were running a slideshow, that looped repeatedly. A single picture spanned over the entire ceiling, as though it allowed you to actually view the memory itself. On the wall to Sirius' right, it looked like someone had painted a very realistic mirage of the forest behind the house. The sun was high in the sky, and white fluffy clouds were drifting merrily through it.

"Good lord!" Sirius said amazed. "This is incredible!" James turned to face him, with an amused expression on his face.

"My my Sirius." James said. "This is probably the longest you've gone without going into the room of the girl you found attractive. Losing your touch?"

"No!' Sirius said hotly. "It's just…different."" that's why we're here," James said. "I want to talk to you about Evangeline." Sirius didn't quite understand why, but he suddenly felt nauseatingly nervous.

"Okay," he replied slowly. "Why do we have to be in here? Can't we go in our room?"

"I don't want to be overheard" his voice was unusually dark, and he looked at Sirius in a somewhat suspicious way. "Harmony and Evangeline aren't the most self secure people in the world. This room is bewitched with enchantments worthy of the Ministry of Magic…" Sirius nodded in realization.

"So what's this about?"

James took a deep breath, as though he was trying to figure out what it was he wanted to say. When he spoke, he spoke slowly, and his face bore a look of apprehension.

"How much do you know about Evangeline?"

"Not as much as you, I take it."

"You know something don't you?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you have seen, or heard, or figured out something about her, that only a few people know of! I intend to find out what it is, Sirius! Please don't lie to me; I can see it in your eyes." Sirius was at a complete loss to what he had supposedly 'figured out'.

"I don't know what you're talking about, James! No, really, I honestly have no _idea_ what you think I have figured out." James did not look as though he believed a single word he said. "Why would it matter anyway?"

"Because Sirius," James said looking him straight in the eye. "There are things about Harmony and Evangeline, that could get you killed." Sirius gawked at him.

"What do you mean?" Sirius said, rooted to the spot.

"Sirius, I want your word, that nothing said in this room, leaves this room."

"What? What's-"

"Your word, Sirius!" James said, slightly impatient.

"Okay James, you have my word. Nothing said in this room, will leave _this_ room." James visibly relaxed some, yet still looked oddly stern.

"Harmony and Evangeline know more about Lord Voldemort, than anyone alive, including Dumbledore. Well, I take that back, Evangeline knows more about him than Harmony does, but that's not the point. Remember when you got into that argument with her last night, and she told you that she wasn't allowed to date, because she was a member of the Order? Well she wasn't telling the _whole_ truth."

"I had figured as much" Sirius said, stiffly. He was still brooding over _that_ subject, so he decided to turn the conversation. "How is it that they know so much about Voldemort?"

"Well, it was Evangeline who started it." James said solemnly. "When she was quite young, and right before her parents were killed. I don't know _why_ it interested her so much, but she started researching, before she even went to school, on how to rid the world of Voldemort. She is extremely intelligent, if you haven't noticed by now.

"Well she discovered something, about the key to defeating him, and contacted the one person her parents had raised her to believe was the most powerful wizard alive: Albus Dumbledore."

"And what exactly," Sirius said apprehensively. "Did she find out?"

"I have no idea." James replied simply. "I only know that it might help to defeat him."

"So what does all of this have to do with me?"

"I'll get to that later; I have to finish telling you this"

"There's _more_?" Sirius asked. He wasn't too sure if he wanted to know more.

"Unfortunately, yes. Well like I was saying; she contacted Dumbledore, who was of course, immediately intrigued. Dumbledore wrote her back, and asked if he might visit her, and discuss her recent findings.

"Shortly after they met, Voldemort had caught wind of a young girl who had discovered his beloved secret. Naturally, he was infuriated."

"Wait" Sirius said, shaking his head in confusion. "Shouldn't she be dead? Obviously he would've killed her, right?"

"Well yes, he tried to. That's why Evangeline has no parents. He went to kill her, and she was gone. Her parents were home, but refused to tell him where she had gone, so he killed them, and burned the house down. She went to live with Harmony, and Voldemort was back to searching for the person who was most dangerous to him at that point.

"Years later, Dumbledore contacted Evangeline again, requesting another meeting. This time Evangeline came to Hogwarts."

"When was this?" Sirius asked.

"Around two years ago" he replied. Sirius was amazed at how small the world was.

"Well," James continued. "Soon after this Evangeline, for the sake of keeping a friend who was more like a sister, told Harmony _as little_ as she could. Dumbledore openly made them _both_ members of the Order of the Phoenix, but gave them both Top Secret missions. Keep in mind now, that the only people, who were supposed to know of these missions, were Evangeline, Dumbledore, and Harmony. Not even Harmony's parents knew." Sirius nodded.

" Somehow, Voldemort found out where Evangeline was, who she was with, and that Harmony was a now a threat to him. He attacked again, while the girls were at an Order meeting, in this house, actually. Well, when Voldemort was confronted, again, with the absence of the girls, he was quite infuriated. Harmony's parents had no idea where the girls were; Dumbledore had come to collect them. Presented with a lack of sufficient information, he killed them, and burned their house to the ground.

"Dumbledore sent them _here_, not because we are the last living relatives, but because he is afraid of who else Voldemort is willing to kill, before he gets to them. They would be safer here, close to him at Hogwarts, then they would be hiding in the Department of Mysteries."

"So lets get this straight," Sirius said, still looking thoroughly confused. "Evangeline holds the key to defeating Voldemort? If so, then why isn't he gone yet?"

"I don't think it's that simple, Sirius." James said.

"So… that's why I can't date her? Because Voldemort is, out to get her? That still makes no sense…"

"Don't you understand?" James was obviously running short on patience. "Evangeline would subject herself to the most horrible miserable life, separated from everyone and everything she cared about, if she thought it was for the greater good."

"So she _does_ like me!"

"that's not what I said, Sirius."

* * *

James POV

He didn't want to have this conversation in the first place, but he knew it had to happen. He could tell that Sirius' feelings for Evangeline were more than just a simple crush, or infatuation; his eyes told him so.

_Caroline hurt him too badly for his own good, _James thought. Sirius had never dated anyone before her, and had fallen absolutely head-over-heals in love. He could only hope that Evangeline would reject him for not sharing the same feelings, or let down whatever barrier she was putting up to keep Sirius out. He didn't know how much longer Sirius would be able to hold up his chin, and act like nothing bothered him; and when Sirius was affected by something, it affected _everyone_. Something had to be done about it.

And so James and Lily had come up with the cock-and-bull story he had just fed to Sirius, based on the fraction of information they knew about her, and any of the tidbits they gathered along the way, in a desperate attempt to calm his nerves about the situation, and get him to think clearly.

"James?" he heard Sirius ask. He looked up at him. "What do you feel, when you and Lily are alone? Just talking, I mean." James gave him an odd look. In the past, whenever Sirius would ask him questions about his feelings for Lily, he would always lead it into a conversation about Caroline, and how he and Caroline might somehow get back together.

He had done it every few weeks; hoping that maybe James could offer some assurance. However, James knew (from personal experience), that it was better to be shot down, then to be given false hope. James realized that he had remained silent, wrapped in his own thoughts, and not yet answered Sirius' question.

"inexplicable happiness". He said. Sirius nodded in understanding. "it's almost like I can feel everything and nothing at the same time." Sirius nodded again but didn't say anything.

Although James felt he had come up with a very clever way of elaborating Evangeline's 'past', not all of what he said was false. Evangeline really did know things that could get _all_ of them killed but not because she had uncovered some deep dark secret of Voldemort's. Unfortunately, he had no idea what any of it was. All he knew, was that Evangeline was really Hermione Granger, a girl from twenty years in the future. He had gathered, from both his own observations, and the many discussions he and Lily had on the subject, that Voldemort would still be here, for at least another twenty years or so.

However, that wasn't important; what _was_ important, was making sure that Sirius knew the 'reasons' why Evangeline might reject him. The heartbreak was inevitable, unfortunately. James knew Dumbledore would find a way for her to return to her own time, and until then, James would just have to offer Sirius negative answers until he hopefully lost interest in her. James and Sirius spent what seemed like hours in the room, just thinking. Only when they heard a pounding on the door, did they realize how long they had been in the girl's room. James' watch now said 3:47, and sun in the painting of the sky was moving closer to the horizon. Sirius stood up, looking slightly alarmed, and moved to answer the door. James could hear Remus' voice from the other side of the door, and it sounded frantic.

"Sirius! You and James need to get downstairs now; it's about the girls" Sirius looked at James, expressing the horrid thoughts that now ran through his mind.

"they haven't come back." He said, as James leapt from his 'thinking spot', and followed Sirius downstairs, toward the source of the noise. When they entered the living room, the least expected scene confronted James.

Peter lay sprawled on the carpet, _badly_ beaten. There were deep cuts all over him, and he was shaking uncontrollably.

"what the hell?" James gasped.

"I don't know." His mother replied. She was mending him the best she could. "he apparated into the living room, just like this. The apparition must have taken all the strength he had left; he's out cold."

"and the girls?"

"they weren't with him" Remus replied, and he could hear the desperation in his friends voice. James and Sirius shared a glance. James knelt down next to Peter's side, and touched his forehead.

At his touch, Peter's eyes flew open, and he sat bolt upright.

"Peter," Lily asked tentatively. "what happened?" Peter shook his head.

"don't…know…" he mumbled. He lost the strength to hold himself up, and fell backward into James' arms. "he…took…torture…not safe…kill…want…to…tell…"

"where are Harmony and Evangeline?" Remus asked slowly.

"he took… want…to…tell… will…kill…"

"who's going to kill?" Sirius asked sharply. "Peter, who took them?" Peter closed his eyes, as though terrified to speak. He looked up at Sirius, barely holding onto consciousness, and spoke two words that would forever haunt their minds:

"_he_ did" and fainted.

* * *

Evangeline POV (3 hours earlier)

She felt extremely claustrophobic; much like the feeling of whenever she apparated. This was different, however. It didn't feel like apparating, more like being transported by portkey. Evangeline felt her feet slam into the cold hard stone, of an unknown, dark hallway.

She couldn't see a thing in the dark, and felt around her for the arms of Peter and Harmony. She found someone's arm, and grasped their hand.

"Evangeline?" she heard someone whisper to her right. it was Harmony.

"I'm here" she whispered back. Harmony moved toward her, and grabbed her other hand, which meant that her left hand was holding Peter's.

"Peter!" Evangeline whispered, terrified that he might've been hurt.

"I-I'm here!" he called. Light suddenly filled the hallway as torches on the wall flamed to life. Evangeline looked at a terrified Peter, whose nose was bleeding freely, and looked as though it might be broken. Evangeline reached for her wand in her side pocket, but felt only the fabric of her jeans. She searched all of her pockets frantically, but there was no wand. She glanced at Harmony, who was busy searching the ground for her own wand, only to come up with nothing.

"Wh-where are we?" Peter asked.

One thought tugged at Evangeline's mind: had Peter gone bad yet? If he was, then he was certainly hiding it well. He was the only logical explanation in her mind, however she needed more proof. She had known him for two months, and she found it hard to believe that the Peter she now knew would be betraying his best friends in three years time. Evangeline concluded that the transition must have happened sometime after graduation.

"I don't know" Harmony said, bringing Evangeline out of her reverie.

"I think the more important question to ask", Evangeline said, looking them both in the eye. "is _how_ did we get here?" Harmony and Peter looked thoughtful for a moment, before Peter answered first.

"maybe someone transported us here." He said. "I mean, it's possible, right? Maybe it was a Death Eater" Harmony raised an eyebrow skeptically and looked at Evangeline for confirmation.

"well," she said slowly. "it _is_ possible. However, the only reason we were outside in the first place, was because Harmony and I got into an argument. A Death Eater couldn't possibly have known that we were going to argue, or that Harmony would leave the house, or that she would even go in the same direction."

"yeah, Evangeline's got a point. There's no way they could've known that." Harmony said.

"but what if they didn't have to know all that stuff?" Peter suggested. "they could've been stationed around the area, waiting for you to show up."

"yes…" Evangeline said, apparently thinking the scenario over in her mind. "yes, but they could've done it last night when we were already in the woods." the idea of Death Eaters spying on them while they played games and laughed merrily all night long was sickening.

"well, well, well. Look what we have here!" said a cold deep voice from behind them. The three simultaneously turned to see to whom the voice belonged: a Death Eater.

Tall, and muscular, wearing black robes, a black pointed hat and Death Eater mask, he stood at nearly six foot three. Evangeline stood up, closely followed by Harmony; Peter remained on the floor, trembling.

"who are you?" Evangeline demanded.

"oh ho!" the death eater exclaimed. "you must think yourself so high and mighty."

"what do you want?" Harmony said; there was no fear in her voice.

"well, I could think of a few good things I could get from you, however, the Dark Lord who has a few…interests in you…"

The death eater snapped his fingers, and three more death eaters appeared from the shadows, advancing on the trio. Evangeline stepped backward, the feeling of helplessness growing inside her before she felt the cold of a stone wall on her back.

The death eater in front of her shot forward, but Evangeline dodged to the left, and made a cheap grab for his wand. She would've had it, but unfortunately one of the remaining two death eaters grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him. Although she knew he was _much_ stronger than herself, she fought her hardest against his cold hands. Harmony was struggling against her own death eater, and Peter was shaking so badly, that his death eater barely had to grip him at all.

Kicking and screaming, the death eater's carried, and dragged Evangeline, Harmony, and Peter to where Voldemort would inevitably, be waiting…


	14. Someone Catch Me

Chapter 14: Someone Catch Me

Hermione POV

It had been three days since Voldemort had begun torturing them. Three agonizing days. Evangeline had a suspicion that Voldemort somehow knew they weren't who they were pretending to be. At first she was terrified of who could have told him such things, how he could have guessed. Then she remembered that he was, in addition to many other things, exceptionally intelligent, and could have made such assumptions on his own. Now however, as she was slowly losing consciousness, it didn't matter to her what he knew, but how they would get out alive. Deep down though, she knew they wouldn't.

She told herself she wouldn't crack, that she wouldn't give in no matter what he did to her; she could feel her resolve dissipating with every breath she took.

Upon arriving, they were placed in separate rooms, each pitch black and made entirely of stone. The only light she had seen was the light that came in when the large wooden door to her room was opened by _him._ At first everything was how she expected; how it was always done by Voldemort in her experience. Which happened to be more than anyone else could boast. But he seemed to sense her resolve. She could endure the Cruciatus forever if she had to. Eventually her mind would snap under the pressure and she would be useless to him, but Evangeline knew he would never let it happen. He would have simply killed her if that's what he wanted. He wanted something from her, and even though she didn't know what it was just yet, she was never going to let him have it.

But now he was changing things; at least she assumed he was changing things. He usually witnessed torturing personally, but today she was faced by two large Death Eaters alone. It was this more than anything else that made her nervous. Evangeline gathered all the wits she had left, and put the most defiant expression she had on her face.

"You think that will help you?" said the first, and Evangeline could just barely make out the sneer on his face in the semi-darkness.

"no," she said, her voice croaking from lack of use. "but I have to do something to amuse myself." she knew she would pay for it later, but for now it felt so good.

Evangeline had been right to assume Voldemort's change in tactic. He had left her at the mercy of his Death Eater's, and their sadistic pleasures. They had beaten her, starved her, chained her to a wall and whipped her, and perhaps worst of all, they said nothing to her. They didn't demand answers for things, degrade her, give her orders, or mention anything of Harmony or Peter, or if they were even still alive. As more days passed, she found herself retreating to the sanctity of her mind as the torturing became more severe. She could close her eyes, and see herself at Hogwarts again, with Harry and Ron. She could pretend she was still Hermione, fretting about NEWT's, spending most of her free time in the library expanding her knowledge of magic, and laughing with Harry and Ron in the Great Hall. The more time she spent in her mind, the harder it became for her to be Evangeline again. She was playing a dangerous game, and her sanity was what was at stake.

On the sixth day of their captivity, Voldemort had returned to her room accompanied by a close few Death Eater's, and Evangeline knew that this time he would want answers.

"I could do this forever, you know." Voldemort said, his cold high-pitched voice breaking the silence.

"and I," Evangeline whispered. "I would deny until the day I die."

"That day won't come as soon as you hope." he said coldly. "If you think this is torture, then you haven't fully understood the meaning of Dark Magic." Inside Evangeline was screaming in terror, but she knew her expression never changed.

Voldemort then turned towards her, a twisted smile on his face. "You", he said, walking closer to her. "you know more about dark magic than any Gryffindor I know." Evangeline worked hard to keep her mind clear, and her face impassive. "why would someone who detests the Dark Arts so, have such a keen interest in it?" Evangeline said nothing; she would not, _could not_ give into him. She saw his hand delve inside his robes, and she expected, almost welcomed the impending flash of green light, and the sweet, blissful relief of death. But none of that came. Instead Voldemort was holding what looked like a small dagger.

"do you know what this is?" he asked her softly, caressing the blade with one of his sickeningly long, spider-like fingers. Again she said nothing, although it was much harder not to spit out a sarcastic response. Of course Evangeline knew what it was.

Suddenly Voldemort lashed out at her. Pain exploded in her chest before she was ready for it; before she could hide in her mind as Hermione again. Her arms, still chained to the wall above her head, instinctively tried to reach her chest, to protect it somehow. It was no use however, and she gasped involuntarily as blood fell from her chest and onto the floor. She hung there limply, supported on by her arms still chained to the wall above her.

"This blade," Voldemort continued as though nothing had happened. "is coated with a very unique snake venom. Suffice it to say that your wound will be unable to close on it's own."

Evangeline knew instantly that he was right. Blood seemed to pour out of her chest, and she knew that the venom belonged to his own snake, Nagini. She blocked out Voldemort's next words, and slowly but surely, she was Hermione again. No longer chained to the wall she was 13, standing next to Ron, who was laying on a rotting mattress in the Shrieking Shack with a badly injured leg. She looked ahead and saw Sirius and Remus pleading with Harry to believe that Sirius was innocent, and a crumpled pile of black in the corner that she knew was Professor Snape. Suddenly they were all moving to go downstairs once more, towards the passage back to Hogwarts. Hermione brought up the rear, following Harry, who was looking at Sirius with a sort of sheepish expression.

Harry's head vanished and she was Evangeline again. Her room was empty, her hands were free, and _was it possible? Her door was open!_ but no, it couldn't be; Voldemort would never be so careless. And yet, she found herself moving towards the door, to check for herself. But as she reached out for it, it was no longer her cell door; it was the door in the Shrieking Shack that Harry had just gone through. Hermione reached out, and opened the door fully, and stepped through.

* * *

Sirius POV

Six days earlier

Sirius was pacing, and wringing his hands nervously. Lily was too shocked to move, while Remus stared at a wall, a blank look on his face. James was helping his mother to clean up Peter the best they could.

_This is all my fault, _Sirius thought miserably. _If I could just shut up occasionally, and not start arguments with everyone I know…this wouldn't have happened._ Sirius felt exhausted, not only from the lack of sleep of their two nights running together, but of the entire day's events. _Just think,_ he thought. _Only yesterday, Remus and I were planning a surprise party for Harmony and Evangeline. She was sleeping on that couch._ He looked over at the couch where Lily now sat, wishing that it were Evangeline, sleeping peacefully, as she had the previous day.

As Sirius mulled over his memories of the previous day, something struck him.

"James!" he called suddenly, in a tone so loud that everyone in the room jumped as if being scolded. James looked at Sirius with a look of half irritation, and half curiosity.

"Yeah?" he answered slowly.

"I need to talk to you." James, still looking quite perplexed, followed Sirius out of the living room, and into the dining room. Sirius walked straight over to the small bookshelf on the far side of the room, and scanned the titles. He tilted out a book entitled _La Forza Del Destino_. He then turned and walked toward the china cabinet on the other side of the room, just as it started to slide away, revealing a room beyond. Sirius led James through the secret doorway, and into a room, which they had not entered in many months.

The room itself, was everything an aspiring Marauder could dream of. It contained folders of parchment, on which instructions to some of the greatest pranks Hogwarts would ever see, were hand copied. There were books everywhere on spells for any occasion. There were two separate shelves, each taking up nearly an entire wall, one with labeled boxes of every Zonko's product ever made; the other shelf, contained organized and labeled boxes of things the Marauders had made themselves, in that very room.

"James," Sirius said, cutting right to the chase. "earlier you asked me what it was about the girls I figured out." James nodded. "I told you I didn't know, because I really didn't. however, what I'm about to tell you, I didn't categorize as having anything to do with Harmony and Evangeline until just a second ago…"

"okay". James said. "Sirius, are you alright? I mean, when you mix the shock of something like this with a lack of sleep, you can get scary outcomes…"

"this is serious James!" Sirius snapped. "I'm not suffering from paranoia, or hallucination. And besides, this happened before the sleepover." James cocked and eyebrow at Sirius, who was now busy searching the room for something.

"Sirius mate, what exactly do you need to tell me? And what are you looking for?"

"I'll explain everything," Sirius said, struggling to see behind a high pile of boxes in a corner, where all four Marauders had hidden things of great value to them. "as soon as I find- ah ha!" Sirius exclaimed, and emerged carrying a stone basin, filled with a swirling silvery substance.

"mate," James said slowly, afraid that Sirius might be suffering from trauma induced shock. "why do we need the Pensive?"

"because," Sirius replied distractedly. He was preoccupied by the task of pulling long silver strands of memory from his temple. "some things are better seen than heard."

"and some things are better left untold." James said, eyeing Sirius warily. "please, at least explain _something _to me!" Sirius stopped and looked at James, an odd sort of look on his face, that could be a mix of irritation, and eagerness.

"okay, I'm sorry I'll slow things down a little so you can understand better." James looked slightly relieved, silently thinking that things were far too fast for them, and needed to slow some…

"thanks mate. I know I wasn't exactly going too slow earlier either, but I just realized how fast-paced we live our lives. I was only thinking that maybe we should slow down a bit to enjoy things more."

"or hate them." Sirius said, not meaning to say aloud.

"what?"

"you said we should slow our pace down a bit, and enjoy live more. I didn't mean to say out loud, but I meant that you can enjoy life some times, and hate it others". James nodded. Sirius thought what he had just said sounded somewhat self-centered. This could be translated to mean that it sounded like he was feeling sorry for himself, which wasn't…entirely true.

"so, what exactly is going on?" James asked calmly pulling up a chair for both him and Sirius, who sighed and sat down.

"alright, while you were gone with Lily…" and Sirius explained everything. All about Evangeline not waking the first time round, about listening to Harry and Hermione's argument, about their kiss, and about the explosion at the very end.

"so," James said slowly. "this is what you were intending to show me?" Sirius nodded.

"yeah, I still think it'd be a good idea for you to see it."

* * *

James POV

Of course, James knew who this 'Hermione' was that Sirius spoke of, but he did have to wonder about other parts of this strange vision, or whatever you wanted to call it. Even though James knew who Hermione was, and where she was from, he still felt an overwhelming desire to see what Sirius had seen. He wondered why Sirius saw what he did in the first place. If Sirius was seeing things like this, then maybe, just maybe…

"Can I?" James asked, breaking the temporary silence that hung between the pair.

"yeah," Sirius replied, pushing the Pensive closer to him. "Please be my guest."

_Good,_ James thought. _Less explaining, I have to do. Instead, I can just show him, maybe he'll tell me more about her…_

"ready?" Sirius asked. He was obviously nervous, though James couldn't imagine why.

"when you are," James replied, giving Sirius a sideways smile. Sirius nodded, and plunged headfirst into the silvery substance of the pensive, James following close behind.

James could only assume it was a memory of Evangeline's, but only because he knew that Evangeline was really Hermione. _Why does she look so different, though?_ He thought. Was that the real Hermione, or was the one he knew the real one? Did she have brown eyes, or blue? And however long ago that memory was, she had lost a lot of weight since then… _I'll talk to him at Hogwarts. After all, it's only a week and a half from now._

"well?" he heard Sirius ask.

"well," James said slowly, weighing his words. He had to be careful not to give too much out. "what do you think of this?"

"what threw me off," Sirius said. "was the close resemblance of Hermione and Evangeline. I mean, Harry looked a lot like you as well, that was pretty odd too…" James nodded.

"yes, I agree with you on that. What do you make of it?"

"that's the problem, I can't tell _what_ to make of it! Every time I come up with a solution to Hermione, I can't place Harry! They don't fit together!"

"has it occurred to you, that maybe there are two people who look a lot like both Evangeline and I?" James said.

"well, yeah", Sirius replied. "but the chances of that are-"

"_very_ slim, I know. But it is a possibility; I mean look at how much Professor Baum and I look alike…"

"yeah," said Sirius, a smile gracing his face. "I swear if you had brown hair, and more wrinkles, than you could change places." James chuckled a bit, before adding on a more serious note:

"this is an important thing, Sirius, but right now, we have more pressing matters at hand. I expect Dumbledore will be over sometime this week-". Sirius tensed and his face cringed slightly. "what?" James asked.

"oh, nothing." Sirius said, somewhat distantly. "I just didn't have it in my mind that they would be gone that long… don't know what I was thinking honestly." He was covering for himself, and probably hoping James wouldn't notice. That, of course, was absurd in James' mind, seeing that he knew Sirius inside out.

_Ding!_

The sound of someone calling at the door startled both James and Sirius, and they immediately rushed from the room, to see who the caller was.

It was Dumbledore, looking older than ever. The absence of his trademark twinkle left a slightly eerie presence about him.

"Come", he said, not even bothering with pleasantries. "we have urgent matters to discuss."

* * *

Hermione POV

Hermione walked along the passage back to Hogwarts behind Harry and Sirius once more. She watched in a dull amusement as they made awkward conversation, and Harry tried to steer the conversation towards the question he desperately wanted to ask. But she knew that he would never get his answer, and in a few moments Remus would transform into a werewolf, Peter would escape, and Sirius would ultimately be captured again. She didn't particularly care to witness it once more. Just as they reached the end of the passage and in front of her made their way past the Whomping Willow, she closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to bring herself back to her present situation; back to Evangeline.

When she opened her eyes all she could see was light. So much light that she had to close her eyes almost immediately. Blinking furiously and eyes watering, she tried to focus on her surroundings. She was in a torchlight passage that she did not recognize. _How did I get here?_ Evangeline heart suddenly pounding in her chest. _Her chest!_ She looked down at her most recent addition. Blood ran freely from the large wound, soaking the bottom of her shirt completely, and pooling in the waistband of her jeans. Whatever she was going to do she needed to do it quickly, or else she would bleed to death where she stood. Or be killed by Voldemort once he discovered she had somehow freed herself from her cell. She heard voices coming from around the corner. Soundlessly, and hardly daring to breathe, she found a spot to hide between two pillars, and tried to conceal herself in the half shadows she found there.

"Well did he say who was responsible?" A man with a deep voice asked.

"No," said another. "he told me to find the redhead, and that he would kill whoever was so careless to let her go wandering about."

_The redhead? _They couldn't possibly be referring to Harmony. Harmony had….she had escaped! She was safe, and now Evangeline could find a way out of this place, and they could be back at the Potter's together. The Death Eater's voices became louder as they neared her hiding spot. They were still debating about who they thought was responsible for letting Harmony escape, and as they passed the columns she was hiding between, Evangeline held her breath and pressed herself against the wall. That's when she saw it.

There, right above the spot where she had pulled herself out of her mind, was a trapdoor in the ceiling! Trying her best to control her breathing so we couldn't be discovered, Evangeline peeked around the edge of the column to see if the coast was clear. It was. She sprinted back to where the trap door was. It was going to be a jump for her to reach it, but she had no choice. She jumped as high as she could, her arm extended toward the handle, but she could not reach it. Her vision blurred momentarily, and she lost her balance. He glanced down at her chest wound; the blood had now completely soaked through the waistband of her pants, and was starting to make it's way down the leg of her pants. She had to hurry.

Glancing around the passage once more, she backed up a few feet from the trapdoor, and got a running start at it. This time her hand closed on the handle and she pulled; sunlight poured through the square opening in the ceiling and she could smell the fresh air. Almost there. She backed up, and ran at the trapdoor again, hands grasping at the ledge. She started pulling herself up, and had managed to get her torso out by propping her body on her forearm. She brought her other arm up, and it connected with something sharp. She lost her balance, fell back through the hole and

_Crack!_

She knew at once her arm had broken, but she couldn't feel the pain through her adrenaline. Not wishing to try and pull herself through that trapdoor when her adrenaline wore off, she quickly backed up to get a running start once more. The pain was there, but she hardly notice it. This time she was successful in pulling a leg through, and using it to push the rest of her body through, she rolled out onto the grass and was free. Nearly.

She could hear shouting from inside the trapdoor and, remembering her situation, she reached for the trapdoor, slammed it shut, and began sprinting away from it.

* * *

Sirius POV

He was a wreck; they all were. The house had not been properly cleaned since the girls were taken. Not one of them had more than a few hours sleep, and the only time any of them spoke, was when Dumbledore stopped by, at 9:00 every evening. There was no point. They were both gone, forever, and the last thing Evangeline would know of him, was his arrogance and pride. Dumbledore had announced (during a visit two says prior) that the ministry would be officially pronouncing both girls as deceased. There would be a funeral in three days time, and they were allowing only them, to attend the service.

After that, things really came to a ruin. Lily could no longer enter her own room, without bursting into hysterics. The magical slideshow of pictures on the ceiling caused too much pain. Sirius and Remus had not slept a second, and were currently developing the pictures that had been left on his camera from the sleepover. They were going to make a scrapbook dedicated to both girls. James, who was both devastated about the loss of the two girls he considered sisters, and the fragile mental state of Lily, had not moved from the same spot on the couch, for more than 6 hours, ever since Lily had fallen asleep on him. Outside, the sun was setting, marking off the last day before the funeral.

He wanted to cry; he really did. He hated himself for what happened. It was his fault anyway. Somehow, he always managed to push away the people he loved.

_Love,_ Sirius thought bitterly. _Who am I fooling? I don't love her. What is love anyway? Just another stupid emotion that causes nothing but trouble, or something that takes delight in torturing people who fall victim to it intoxication. _

Sirius, fighting his thoughts, fought his way into a restless sleep.

FLASHBACK

_Sirius loved her, he honestly and truly loved her. And nothing in the world made him happier than when she said 'I love you too'. She couldn't make herself any more perfect than she already was, and he would do anything she asked of him. _

_Something bothered him though. He felt partly distanced from her, but he continued to love her more everyday. Eventually, he assumed it was because he hadn't told her how much he really did love her, which is what he was on his way to do, at that very moment._

_Lucky for him, she had asked if they could talk before he ever had to break the ice about. So he agreed to meet her in the entrance hall, right after dinner. _

"_Mate, go down to dinner." James said sincerely, looking nervously at his friend who had been pacing for over an hour. _

"_No," Sirius replied, not looking at James once. "I'm too nervous. I'll just end up puking it all back up…" James did his best to hide his grin. _

"_well you better get your butt down there anyway! Dinner will be over soon, and it wont look good if your late." James chuckled to himself, but Sirius merely looked pale. "if you already told her you love her, than how hard would it be to elaborate on your feelings a little?"_

"_it's not as easy as it sounds. And I've never done this before, so give me a break. Besides, I don't see you snogging Lily any time soon." _

"_oh ha ha." James said sarcastically. "oh don't forget we've got quidditch practice at eight, and you'd better be there!"_

"_I'll be there." Sirius replied, secretly thinking about skipping his rendezvous, and blaming it on quidditch. Sighing, he stood and faced the door nervously. _

"_don't worry mate." James consoled. "you'll be just fine. I can hear the bells now. Mrs. Caroline Black!" Sirius smiled weakly. _

"_keep your finger crossed." He said, before leaving the dormitory. _

_Sirius stood at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, patiently awaiting the arrival of Caroline. Hoping he wouldn't be late to quidditch practice, he went back to reviewing his many speeches for her. _

_Caroline Rivers was Sirius' proclaimed love. She was a gorgeous Ravenclaw, around five and a half feet tall, with stunning straight burgundy-colored hair that reached her shoulders. Her eyes, which were a golden brown color, could sparkle has bright as the stars. Unfortunately, they held no sparkle tonight. And unbeknownst to him, they would soon sparkle for someone else. _

"_Caroline!" Sirius said, spotting her at last. He kissed her forehead and was so excited and nervous at the same time that he didn't feel her tense. Grabbing her hand, Sirius led her outside, into the brilliant springtime stars. He held her hand, and led her down toward the quidditch pitch, intending to talk in the stands like they always did. As they were walking past the lake however, Caroline yanked her hand from his, and stopped. _

"_what's wrong?" Sirius asked, looking concerned._

"_we need to talk. Caroline said stiffly. _

"_here?" _

"_yes, here." _

"_okay," Sirius said slowly. "what's up?"_

"_I'm gonna cut right to the point, Sirius. I don't think we can be together." Sirius inhaled a sharp breath. _

"_Wh-what? What, what do you mean, we, we cant be together?"_

"_I mean it exactly how I said it. We're not compatible."_

"_not compatible!" Sirius said, flaring up at once. He would not lose her. "is that how you've felt, for the past… two years?" _

"_not the entire time". She replied, still uncaring._

"_what! How long have you felt this way?"_

"_around a year and a half". This wasn't happening to him. It was really a cruel prank, some jerk Slytherin was pulling on him, just to get even. _

"_you- you mean, that all of this was a lie?" Sirius said, his voice failing him, and rising in pitch._

"_nearly all of it. But let's not go into detail."_

"_but, why? You led me on, for a year and a half! Why?"_

"_like I said, not all of it was a lie. For about the first four or five months, it was perfect. But I confided in one of my friends, the desire I had to break up with you then, and, a Slytherin overheard us. Well, leaving out the specifics, we made a beat, to see how long I could keep the infamous Sirius Black under my thumb." He couldn't believe it. He was in love, with a lie. _

"_but… but I love you, Caroline. I love you! Does that mean anything to you!"_

"_you love me?" Caroline scoffed. "you are incapable of love, Sirius. You think of no one but yourself. A year and a half ago, you broke my heart. I'm getting even. You bring nothing but pain to those around you. You don't have the right to tell someone you love them. You're the one who's lying. Not me"._

"_no, I'm not! Caroline, please!" she was walking away from him, but he wouldn't let her. he grabbed her hand and pulled her around to face him. "don't leave me, Caroline," he croaked. "I love you. _

_She slapped him _hard_ across the face; Sirius let go of her hand, watching hopelessly as she left to disappear through the crowd of people that had circled around them. Before she was out of sight, she turned to face him once more. _

"_I hate you, Sirius Black." And then she was gone completely. _

_The look in his eyes could only be described as one thing: heartbreak. Never moving his eyes from the spot she had left, Sirius sank to his knees, unable to stand any longer. _

"_Sirius!" someone called from outside his circle of onlookers. He neither knew, nor cared who it was. "Sirius! Will you get out of the way you gits; I'm trying to get to Sirius here!" Lily emerged from the group, and ran forward, falling on her knees, putting herself eye level with him. Forcing Sirius to look at her, she removed his hand from the side of his face where Caroline had hit him. The crowd gasped_

_Her kindness shocked him; they had practically been enemies all year. Yet here she was, putting aside their previous differences, and helping him in his time of need. Her emerald eyes were overflowing with sympathy, but Sirius' vision blurred, as tears filled his eyes. _

_Lily pulled him into a tight embrace, and he gave in to his sorrow. His knees fell out from beneath him, and he was clinging to Lily to keep him from falling to the ground. And there, he cried for the first time in years._

_James, Remus, and Peter ran through the crowd to reach Sirius, James in the lead. Upon seeing the bizarre couple, James froze, Remus and Peter narrowly avoiding colliding with him. All three of them stared open mouthed at Lily, comforting Sirius as though they had been the best of friends._

_The group had started to walk away, realizing that they really had no place there. James and Remus silently encouraged the idea, shuffling people out of the area. _

END FLASHBACK

Sirius had only slept three hours, according to the clock on the wall. It was nearly nine o'clock, and Dumbledore was supposed to be there any minute. Sirius, not wanting to be in the room when Dumbledore arrived, silently made his way to the kitchen.

He was mad at Dumbledore, truth be told. Dumbledore could have done something about the ministry saying that Evangeline was dead. If she was still alive, then she was probably all alone, living on a pessimistic hope of being rescued. Now that opportunity would never come. Even if she were alive, she would die waiting to be rescued. Although he had only known her for two months, he knew she would be with him till the day he died.

As if on que, the doorbell rang, and Mrs. Potter let Dumbledore inside. Sirius busied himself with a sandwich hoping Dumbledore would continue without him. However, Dumbledore came directly into the kitchen, as if intending to speak to him.

"Mr. Black, may I have a word?" he asked politely. Scowling in his mind, Sirius nodded. "I was hoping you'd say that." Said Dumbledore. Sirius neither stopped what he was doing, or made any acknowledgment that he heard Dumbledore.

"Sirius", Dumbledore started slowly. "I know you are mad at me. I am sorry that I couldn't find them. In a sense, I fell as though I've let you down."

"I never asked anything of you," Sirius said, still not looking up.

"no, you didn't." Dumbledore said politely. "but your body language, and attitude show what you really want. I know what Evangeline means to you, and I know that you love her."

"I am not capable of love," Sirius said stiffly.

"nonsense!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "my dear boy, that is absolutely ludicrous".

"how would you know if I loved her or not?" Sirius snapped, not in the mood to talk about love.

"love, Mr. Black; not loved". Sirius looked completely dumbfounded.

"what?"

"if I am correct, then you have not stopped being in love with her."

"I said I loved her, not that I was in love with her. there's a difference."

"is that so? For someone who is not capable of love, you seem to understand it more than any student I know."

"can we please, not have this conversation!" Sirius snapped. "I don't want to talk about what my feelings for Evangeline were!" Dumbledore sighed sadly.

"it is neither myself nor Evangeline that you are mad at, Sirius." Sirius glared at him. "you are mad at yourself. You believe that you can longer trust your feelings, because you will end up betrayed once again."

"you don't know what happened! You wouldn't want to love anyone either if it happened to you!"

"on the contrary Sirius, I know more about my students than they know. Love is a powerful thing Sirius. Do not doubt what you feel; follow it." Sirius, already in a bad mood, was about to say something rude, but Dumbledore beat him to it. "look Sirius," he said solemnly. "I am sorry for the loss of two amazing girls, but I must warn you: do not let their deaths, cause you to forget hoe to live. I suggest sharing memories with the others. Perhaps, look at some pictures; I daresay the enchantments on their bedroom will be sufficient." Sirius nodded, feeling as though he had been scolded.

"I will speak with the others," Dumbledore said after a moment or two. "I highly recommend doing this tonight, before the funeral. Funerals are for saying goodbye, and placing that person in your memory, for ever more."

_Dumbledore and his bloody riddles,_ thought Sirius miserably.

Ten minutes later, all four of them (Peter was still in bed) made their way up to the bedroom of Lily, Evangeline, and Harmony, to help each other say goodbye. Their arms were linked to offer moral support for the person in need, and nobody spoke a word. Lily was silently crying, and all three guys were pale and stony faced. As they approached the door, Sirius took a deep breath, knowing they were going to be inside to room, for the rest of the night…

Just as Sirius predicted, it was a very hard night, but Lily was the most open with her grief out of all four of them. James cried openly, cradling Lily, and Remus sat in a corner clutching Harmony's pillow, tears running down his face. He however, had still not managed to cry.

A knock at the door got their attention. The door opened, and Mr. and Mrs. Potter entered followed by Dumbledore.

"it is time, I am sad to say," Dumbledore said abruptly. "to ready yourselves for the funeral".

"but sir", Sirius said slightly confused. The funeral was set for dusk, and although there was a small amount of light outside, the sun had not yet risen. "I thought the funeral was at sunset."

"it is," Dumbledore said gravely. "but there is important business that we must see to at the Ministry. I'm grieved to say that four seventeen year-old wizards have to immerse themselves in matters such as these, in such a dispirited atmosphere. However, I have postponed it long enough, and today will be our last chance to see that it gets done." Dumbledore then gave a courteous bow, and left the room; what he did next, Sirius could only guess.

"well," said Mrs. Potter, sounding cheerful, as though she were trying to create a more pleasant atmosphere. "boys, I have your things washed, ironed, and laying out on each of your beds, and don't be too terribly long; I want to get the business part done as quickly as possible." Sirius left along with James and Remus, who were both wearing similar looks of sorrow. Sirius took a wild guess that his expression probably matched as well.

Entering their room, they found their black attire washed and freshly pressed, just as Mrs. Potter had said. Sirius dressed quickly and made his way downstairs, hoping for a little time to himself, maybe outside, before they left.

He made his way to the kitchen, expecting to see Mrs. Potter and Dumbledore waiting for them, but it was empty. Silently thanking Merlin, he walked to the front door.

Sirius had the door open, and his left foot on the other side of the threshold, when a noise behind him startled him slightly. He turned to see what it was.

* * *

Evangeline POV

She ran as far away from that place as she could, she ran from her fear, her anger, and her _pain_. She ran for what felt like hours, not stopping once.

_He'll catch me,_ she thought. _I can't stop, or he'll find me. _

So she kept running, and proceeded to climb up the nearest mountain as fast as she could. She knew that if she could just reach the top, she would be free.

Hermione didn't know how long it took her to reach the top. She barely registered the waves of pain her body was sending throughout her. Her chest, already protesting at the strain of her output, was bleeding fast and free, contributing to the stains of dirt and old blood on what was left of her once powder-blue shirt.

Finally, she reached the top. What she saw, would've been breathtaking on any normal circumstance. But now, as she looked out into nothing but vast mountains, with a river flowing through the valley between them, she knew there was nowhere for her to go.

She sat down on the nearest rock and cried. Cried for herself, and her entire situation. She cried for Harry, Ron, Mr. Weasley, and everybody else she knew. She cried for the fact that she didn't have the strength to apparate, but knew she had to. Thus, abandoning her rock, she stood and braced herself for the feeling.

Evangeline knew something had gone wrong, immediately after she turned. She would never make it now. She was falling, falling, falling, hoping someone would catch her.

And they did.

* * *

Well I'm sorry for the long delay, but I had a bit of writes block. Anyways, tell me what you think! I want to know!

You guys are super awesome. =D

~~CV~~


	15. Hopeless

Chapter fifteen: Hopeless

Sirius POV

Sirius had the door open, and his left foot on the other side of the threshold, when a noise behind him startled him slightly. He turned to see what it was.

His blood froze solid in his veins.

Sixty seconds, or perhaps even sixty years passed as he stood there dumbfounded, looking completely ludicrous with half his body over the threshold, and his head twisted around as far as his neck would allow.

Evangeline stood there before him, not three feet away, swaying slightly, eyes closed. Sirius stood frozen, opening and closing his mouth like an idiot, his mind conveniently wiped clean of any sense. She continued to sway ominously for a moment, steadied herself, then opened her eyes.

Her crystal blue eyes pierced his own, and suddenly his mind came back to him. He started towards her, but before he even made two whole steps, her knees had given out. She reached out with her left arm for a small glass side table, but it was no use, and before he could do anything to stop it from happening, the table and the small oil burning lamp it bore had toppled over and Evangeline crashed face first into the shards. He rushed to her side, knelt down, and as gently as he could, rolled her over and away from the broken glass.

Sirius could do nothing but stare at the extensive damage that had been done to her body since he'd last seen her. Vaguely he heard footsteps hurrying down the stairs in the other room; someone must have heard the crash of breaking glass. His mind raced, and he could feel the sudden rush of adrenaline through his body. _What do I do? _He made an attempt at trying to pull some of the glass shards from her face, but found that he could not bring himself to touch her. Several times he raised his shaking hands towards her lifeless, pale, helpless form, but drew back without touching her, afraid that he would do more harm than good.

"Sirius, are you ok? I thought I hea-" Lily's concerned voice died in her throat, but Sirius did not respond. His thoughts were rushing around so quickly in his mind that, for a moment, he wouldn't have been able to answer her even if he wanted to. Vaguely he heard more footsteps, and his mind dimly registered the cries of shock and fear that reflected his own feelings. Someone touched his shoulder and it violently shocked him out of his thoughts so unexpectedly that he jumped backwards. Following the hand still resting on his shoulder, his eyes met Lily's, and he surprised himself with his own voice:

"Lily, help her. Please help her." His eyes were boring into hers, begging her to understand what he himself could not: he could not lose her. Then Lily moved away from him and there was a flurry of activity and noise that Sirius barely paid attention to. Lily spoke swiftly and firmly to both James and Remus, waiving her wand absently, moving furniture out of the way, and placing an assortment of newly conjured items on a large table she had also conjured, and placed in the center of the room. In a sweeping and uniformed movement, James, Remus, and Lily magically lifted Evangeline into the air and set her gently on the table.

Remus dropped his wand and walked out of the room without a word or backward glance, while James looked at Lily intensely before leaving the room as well. Lily began moving around Evangeline, fidgeting with things, and twirling her wand. Sirius started towards her, moving to the other side of the table, and almost terrified to look down at her, but knowing he must. Taking a deep breath and preparing himself for the worst, he lowered his gaze down to Evangeline's body.

Lily had torn open what was left of her shirt, and had started working on the large gash that ran diagonally from her left collar bone, down to her right side. She was rubbing different liquids on it, while waving her wand and muttering under her breath. Her right arm was dangling unnaturally from a very noticeable break on her forearm. Blood, old and new, clung to the skin on her stomach, her discarded shirt was damp with it, as was the waistband of her pants. He noticed a small pool of blood on her pants leg and hesitating only for a moment, he reached towards her with trembling hands.

He started rolling her pants leg trying to see where the damage was, but was unable to see anything before her pants leg refused to move and more. Out of nowhere an arm thrust a pair of scissors under his nose, and he looked up slightly startled at Lily. Wordlessly he took them from her, and gently began to cut up the length of her pants until he saw the wound he had been searching for: a compound fracture of her thigh.

"Looks like her hip is dislocated as well," Lily said. Sirius looked over at her; she had traded her wand and potion vial for a hook-shaped needle, and black nylon thread.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked slightly alarmed. He had never witnessed medical treatment like this.

"Stitches." Lily replied, still not looking up from her work. "Sometimes magic can't fix everything. It's a very common muggle solution for wounds that are deep, and large. In all honesty, if we took her to a muggle hospital they would probably use staples, with the size of this wound, but I don't fancy trying to explain to the doctors how she ended up this way. This will do just fine, as long as we keep it clean." her eyes never left her sewing. "Check her other leg for me, will you?" she added, glancing briefly up at him.

Sirius grabbed the scissors once more, and cut up the length of her pants leg, stopping mid thigh. He could see no serious damage, just some bruised areas, and a few scrapes. He moved back up to Evangeline's head, and made quick work of the oil-coated glass shards protruding from her pale, expressionless face. Grabbing a potion he recognized from the pile of medical supplies, along with a soft cloth, he started dabbing the potion on her face, cleaning the blood off, and watching as the small incisions stopped bleeding but did not close. He frowned wondering why the potion was not working correctly, and remembered Lily's statement earlier as she began stitching Evangeline's chest.

"I've sent for Dumbledore." James' voice called from the distance. Sirius did not look up.

"Where is Remus?" Lily questioned.

"I don't know," James replied. "I have not seen him since we left." Lily hummed in acknowledgement. Sirius could hear James moving towards the table. "Lily if you could move over a bit, I could start fixing her arm." Lily did not answer, but held the needle and thread high in the directly above Evangeline's chest, and carefully stepped around to the other side of the table.

"I needed to switch sides anyway." she replied before delving back into the stitching. Sirius was no good at mending spells, and he didn't even bother offering to help with mending. Instead, he took the vial of potion to the other smaller cuts and bruises it would work on, and began working on them silently. A torrent of emotions and thoughts were swirling inside him, and it took nearly every ounce of his concentration to keep himself composed and focus on Evangeline. He consequently did not hear James calling his name until he gripped his arm and said:

"Did you hear me?" Sirius looked up and saw genuine concern on his face.

"Yeah," Sirius said, trying to be nonchalant and probably failing. "yeah, I just….lost in thought." he looked away from James' piercing gaze.

"I need your help, Sirius." Lily said, looking fiercely at him. Sirius nodded, feeling as though he probably wouldn't be very productive. "We have to set her hip back in place." Sirius frowned again, wondering what they would need him for. Surely there was some sort of spell for dislocated joints? Lily must have interpreted his expression because continued in a disgusted tone: "I believe someone must have cursed her. I don't think she can be healed by magic, so we're doing this the muggle way." Sirius cleared his throat.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Give me your belt." Lily replied, ignoring James' raised eyebrows and startled exclamation. "Listen, I know what I'm doing. I have far more experience in muggle medicine than you do since I'm muggle-born. You'll have to trust that I know what I'm doing, or you're going to have to leave; I'm trying to save her life." Sirius nodded absently, but James muttered an apology of sorts that Sirius wasn't paying attention to. His mind was still wrapped around the very real danger Evangeline was in, her life barely hanging on by threads.

"Right. Sirius, belt. James, I need you to stand over here." she motioned to the space to her left where Evangeline's broken arm lay firmly secured in a splint that Sirius hadn't noticed earlier. He pulled his belt through the last loops in his pants and handed it to Lily.

Still he said nothing.

"Thank you Sirius," she continued. "Now you go over there," she pointed directly across from her, at the side of Evangeline's broken leg, and apparently dislocated hip. "and take this." Lily gently lifted Evangeline at the small of her back, and pushed the belt through to Sirius, who grabbed it's end as she instructed. He helped her wiggle it down to her hips, where she grabbed the end from his hands the gently pulled it through the latch in her own until it was almost tight on her hips. "Ok." she said taking a deep breath and looking Sirius full in the face. Suddenly he felt nervous about what she wanted him to do. It started small, but soon it was burning up through his stomach and into his chest, where his heart was racing. "When I say so, I'm going to tighten this belt," Lily stated slowly, calmly, and with complete authority. "and you are going to push her hip back into place. James is going to push against you, but you have to push as hard as you can or it's going to be agonizing for her." Sirius could feel his color leaving his face. He focused more intently on keeping his expression calm, despite the burning waves of nerves inside of him. "however," Lily continued, still looking directly at him. "we'll have to set her leg before we can do that." she looked pointedly away from him, and the nerves inside him burst into flames as he followed her gaze to Evangeline's thigh.

Where her bone was sticking out.

He couldn't.

But he knew he had to. Taking a deep breath, he nodded and moved down until he stood directly in front of the injury, Lily opposite him. She put one hand on each of Evangeline's shins, and held them securely in place. James did the same with her shoulder's. Lily never took her eye's off Sirius, and he drank in her confident and reassuring demeanor. Heart racing, breaths coming in short pants, he placed his hands on her leg, turned his head and

_SNAP!_

Evangeline screamed in agony, a sound that ripped through his body, tearing his heart to shreds as it went. She thrashed against the arms that retrained her and Sirius wanted so badly to comfort her in any way, but instead he kept firm and steady pressure on her thigh until Evangeline's thrashing subsided in to shaking sobs, and Lily could move to Sirius' side and wrap her leg securely in a splint.

"Okay Sirius we need to do her hip now, and get it over with." Lily said moving quickly to her original position. James bent down on Lily's right and placed his hands on Evangeline's hip, waiting for Lily's command to push. Lily was wrapping the end of the belt around her hand to ensure it didn't slip out of her hands. "Sirius?" she looked at him expectantly. "I don't want to have to do this more than once." He nodded, bent his knees, and placed his hands gently on her hip, mentally preparing himself for Evangeline's reaction.

He looked up at her face once more. It was twisted with pain, and she was still whimpering a little but remained mostly unconscious.

He turned his attention back to Lily and nodded.

"Right." she said. "One…Two…Three!" and Sirius pushed with all of his might, heard the _pop!,_ Evangeline's agonizing sobs, and felt the hip sinking back into it's home. Lily pulled his belt as tight as she could around Evangeline, and forced it to clasp keeping her hip from coming back out again. Just then Remus burst into the room.

"I've got them!" he said between gasping for breath. Behind him, Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, and Mrs. Potter came bustling in through the door. Madam Pomfrey immediately rushed to Evangeline's side, where Lily quickly explained everything they had done for her, and Dumbledore listened intently. James went to his mother, and the two were speaking in hushed tones and glancing repeatedly over at Evangeline.

Quietly, so as not to direct attention to himself, Sirius left the group and headed for a sanctity of his bedroom. Once there, he dropped his walls and composure, and allowed every emotion, image, and sound he had suppressed in the past hour to fill him. He reached his arm out for something to steady him, but his body shook with his sobs and he fell to his knees, succumbing to the grief he had been feeling for days.

A/N: I know it's not a very long chapter, but I put a lot of thought into it. Sorry it took forever to update, but I've been busy with moving and such. So I love you all, my readers! Thanks for keeping up with this story and showing your support. I welcome your reviews, thoughts, and even criticism! I can't wait to hear what you think! =D


	16. Suppression

Chapter 16: Suppression

A/N: So I feel it's important for you all to know before reading this chapter, that the dictionary definition of suppression is as follows:

*Forceful Prevention: conscious and forceful action to put an end to something, destroy it, or prevent it from becoming known

*State of Constraint: the state of being forcefully restrained or held back

*Psychology-avoidance of thoughts and feelings: conscious avoidance or inhibition of memories, desires, or thoughts.

Keep those in mind as you read this story in general, but especially this chapter. I suppose it could be said that it's the theme of the story. Anyways, thanks again to all you amazing people out there who read, and (as far as I know anyways) actually enjoy it! =) It makes me happy inside, haha. So tell me what you think about this one! =)

Sirius POV:

Sirius did not leave his room for the better part of a hour, and was grateful that no one had yet come searching for him. He couldn't bring himself to face anyone; not like this. He prided himself on being cool, and collected. Usually he had a tight reign on his deeper emotions. It was true, he did have fiery temper that could flare up at the most inconvenient times, but there were few people who could actually tell what he was feeling or thinking. Right now though, in this moment, he didn't have the willpower to hide those emotions from the world, so he hid himself.

He felt guilty for hiding and wallowing in self-pity while Evangeline was downstairs, in pain, and probably dying. He should be down there, by her side, comforting her in her last moments, but he selfishly couldn't bear to be seen so out of control. He needed this moment, this one moment for himself, before he could face the situation at hand.

The nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach had not yet faded, and instantly burst into flames of burning terror when he thought of Evangeline downstairs. It was, he discovered, undeniably easier to believe her a casualty of war, a missing person never to be seen or heard from again. But this….having her laying on a table in the middle of his best friends' living room, unable to respond, was horrifyingly real to him. He hated himself for being so self-centered, and wished he could be more like James. James, who could look into the face of death itself, and smile at the challenge it presented. He knew he didn't possess that kind of bravery, but he could try to.

Sirius picked himself up off the floor, went to the washbasin on the dresser, splashed some cold water on his face, and went to dig another belt from his trunk. As he looped it through his jeans, he resolved that he would do everything he could to be there for Evangeline in her last moments.

Lily POV:

She was pulling Sirius' belt tight around Evangeline's hip when Remus burst in through the front door, face flushed, and breathing heavily.

"I've got them!" he exclaimed, Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, and James' mother sweeping in through the door behind him. James immediately left his position to speak with his mother, and Madam Pomfrey rushed to Evangeline's side, pulling her wand out as she went. Dumbledore was quietly observing from a distance. Lily held out her hand.

"Wait," she said to Madam Pomfrey, before she could attempt any spells. She looked highly affronted. "I believe someone cursed her, because magic does not heal her. Her chest wound for example," she moved the small white sheet covering her torso so that Madam Pomfrey could see the injury. The old woman put a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp, and Dumbledore looked stern. Lily continued "Every time I used a healing spell, or potion, or did anything magical to it, the wound deepened and started bleeding even more. The only thing that had any lasting effect were muggle remedies, as you can see." she motioned to the stitches on Evangeline's chest, and the splints on both her leg and arm. "Sirius was able to stop the bleeding in the smaller wounds on her face with some Essence of Murtlap, but the cuts themselves didn't close."

"What were the injuries?" Dumbledore said, stepping towards the table. His tone was completely calm, but his expression was very grave.

"Well," Lily started, taking a deep breath and casting a lingering glance at Evangeline. "There's the chest wound, obviously. Her arm was broken, but it was a clean break, so it should heal relatively easily. Her thigh had a compound fracture, and Sirius set it back in place himself but it's going to be harder for her to heal. She's bleeding pretty heavily, but I don't think there's any damage to the artery.." she paused for a moment while Dumbledore nodded slowly. She looked around briefly and noticed Sirius was missing, but thought better of commenting on it just then.

"Other than scrapes and bruises, those are the worst of the injuries." Madam Pomfrey looked contemplative. "Although you should know that the blood-replenishing potion has no effect on her either, and she's lost a lot of blood. I suspect that is largest contributing factor to her unconsciousness."

"Miss Evans," Dumbledore said, smiling fondly at her, his eyes crinkling slightly beneath his half-moon spectacles. "You have done marvelously well!" Lily blushed. "It's truly a blessing to Miss Grace that you are a muggleborn, because without your knowledge of muggle remedies she would surely be dead by now. You have saved this young woman's life." Lily blushed furiously under the praise of her headmaster. "However I am afraid that we do not fully understand these muggle practices as you do, am I right Poppy?"

"Completely, headmaster." Madam Pomfrey replied. "I would love to know more about this; perhaps at Hogwarts, you might assist in Miss Grace's care." Lily looked questioningly at Dumbledore.

"At Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Yes," Dumbledore replied, now speaking loud enough for the others to hear. "I feel it would be best if we allowed Miss Grace to remain at Hogwarts until she is fully recovered. No doubt, it is the safest place for her to be."

"When will you move her?" Mrs. Potter asked from a far corner in the room.

"As soon as possible, Elizabeth. If you would be so kind as to gather some of her personal belongings, I will take them with us as well. Poppy, Elizabeth, could we perhaps speak privately for a moment?" Madam Pomfrey and Mrs. Potter followed Dumbledore through to the dining room, nodding to a puzzled looking Sirius who passed them in the hall on the way out.

"Sirius," Lily smiled at him, secretly relieved that she wouldn't have to search for him with James after all. Sirius acknowledged her with a stiff nod, not meeting her eyes. He walked over to the table where Evangeline lay, as still and pale as ever, and Lily thought she saw his fingertips brushing Evangeline's wrist.

"How is she?" he asked her quietly, still not looking her in the face. Lily's heart went out him. He obviously cared more than any of them realized.

"It will take a while," Lily said in what she hoped would be a reassuring tone. "But I believe she will make it through just fine. She's strong." she chuckled a little, and the corner of Sirius' mouth twitched ever so slightly.

"That she is." he replied. "What did Dumbledore have to say?" This time is was James' turn to speak.

"He told Mum that he thinks she'll be the safest at Hogwarts." his strong voice and confident demeanor always cleared Lily's head, and in times like this, she was extremely grateful. "Seeing as how we still don't know how they were taken, or even who took them, he wants to keep an extra close eye on her. They're going to keep the search going for Harmony; Evangeline may be able to tell Dumbledore where she is once she wakes up." Lily coughed softly.

"Dumbledore has asked me to go to Hogwarts with Evangeline to assist in her care. Madam Pomfrey doesn't really know to much about muggle medicine." James frowned at her, and Lily looked away guiltily. She probably should have told him first.

"Will you go?" Lily had expected the question to come from James, but it was Sirius who asked. She looked over in his direction; he was staring at her, pleading her with an intensity in his eyes that she could not refuse.

"Yes Sirius, I will go with her." she smiled at him again. Lily had never before seen Sirius this way. Usually he was brash, and irritatingly indifferent or immature to situations that required maturity. He always played things off in a light-hearted way, as though they didn't really matter. He never seemed unsure of anything, and never, absolutely ever, (well, with one exception that she could think of) seemed anything but confident about the world and his place in it. This quiet, soft-spoken Sirius unnerved her, and quickly found a soft place in her heart.

"Actually," Dumbledore said in his authoritative, yet calming voice. "I was rather hoping I could convince all of you to accompany her to the castle, where you will remain the rest of your summer holidays. Mr. Pettigrew wont be joining you, I'm afraid; he will be in St. Mungo's for some time still."

"But, my mother," James interjected. "She'll be here alone while my father is out of the country, and it's not safe here." Lily's heart nearly exploded with compassion for James; he always put everyone before himself.

"Don't worry Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said cheerily. "Your mother will be quite safe here, I can assure you." James nodded. "So, I expect you'll need to gather your things. Poppy and I will be waiting by the fireplace." Lily nodded, and with one last glance at Evangeline laying on the table, she went to pack her belongings.

Sirius POV

Sirius hadn't spoken a word to anyone since asking Lily to stay with Evangeline. If he spoke the truth, he was afraid of what he might say. He was afraid that he would speak of the revelation he was slowly coming to on his own. A revelation that had been coming on for some time, and was halted by his belief of her death. Now that he knew she was alive, and would probably live through this, it came back full force and consumed his every thought. He knew that it would continue to consume his every thought, that he was powerless against it, but he fought, and tried his hardest to suppress it. James kept throwing knowing looks in his direction, but he never returned them. Instead, Sirius packed his trunk in silence, not even caring when James and Remus started muttering things to each other, and throwing glances at him. No, Sirius was too involved with his own mind to become distracted by what they were doing, and when he finished his packing, he headed downstairs to meet Dumbledore by the fireplace.

A few minutes later, the other three showed up, carrying trunks, and other belongings, and each took their turn saying goodbye to Mrs. Potter. Sirius gave her a hug without meeting her eyes, but didn't say anything to her. She seemed to understand. After securing their trunks and Evangeline, they stepped one by one into the fireplace and reappeared in Dumbledore's office.


	17. Walking

A/N: Hello to all my readers! Thank you so much for your reviews! Like, immediately after I updated too, haha. I was so grateful to hear from you, though. Anyways I had a review earlier saying that they hoped Hermione wasn't going to be all weak and helpless for long, and I'm pleased to announce that no, she will not be all weak and pitiful for long. Hermione's a strong woman, haha; she's been through hell and back, and this will only slow her down for a little. The long healing process is important though, for reasons I can't necessarily explain. Just bear with me, I promise it'll only be for a little while. As always, thanks for your continued and everlasting support, apologies that this isn't very long, and that it took so long to get it posted. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think!

Chapter 17: Walking

Sirius POV

It had been nearly a week since their arrival at Hogwarts, and Evangeline still had not woken. Her wounds refused to heal magically, and they had to do some disgusting muggle process Lily called a 'Blood Transfusion', which deeply disturbed Sirius. Even though he didn't want to, he had to admit that she seemed to be improving after they did it. She had started mumbling in her sleep, and sometimes moving around, but never fully waking. Dumbledore claimed it to be a self-induced coma, and that she most likely retreated within her mind to escape the pain. Sirius found that he couldn't be around Evangeline after that. Even though he still hardly spoke at all, he knew that his face would give him away to his closest friends, and it wasn't something he wanted to confront at the moment.

In his mind, Sirius had deluded himself to believing that he himself had done this to her. In his mind, he could see that if he never would have mentioned his feelings to her, she and Harmony would never have been in that fight, gone missing, and consequently landed them in their present situation. Where Evangeline was trapped in a coma because of pain he was forced to inflict upon her so she wouldn't die. He wanted to believe that he wasn't just feeling sorry for himself, but he knew it wasn't true. He was moping around the castle, and everyone knew it. All he wanted was to be alone with his emotions, and try to suppress them enough to be around her a few times each day. So he walked. Sirius walked, and walked, and walked. He walked to clear his head of the guilt of Harmony, he walked to free himself from the emotional strain of being close to Evangeline, he walked to escape the piercing gazes of his closest friends, terrified and ashamed that they might suddenly be able to see what troubled thoughts lurked in his mind.

The more he walked, the clearer things became for him. He began to understand his conflicting emotions in regards to Evangeline. Before she had been taken, he enjoying everything about her; her laugh, hair, her fierce determination, especially when it came to people she cared for. Now….now that he had been forced to believe her dead, only to have her come back _nearly_ dead, and to suddenly have her life thrown directly in his hands, he knew it was not that simple. He knew with an absolute clarity that he was in love her, a thought that both terrified and thrilled him to his core. She had taken a greater hold of him laying unconscious in a hospital bed for seven days, than she had in the few months they had spent in each other's company. It was _physically painful_ to see her lying in that blasted hospital bed, knowing that he had driven her away with harsh words, and his own stupidly proud demeanor. And so his guilt drove him away from her, and into the hands of his mind where he was currently contemplating if he would even be able to speak to her once she woke up.

"Sirius?" A soft voice called, shocking him back into reality. He paused in his step and looked around for the source of the voice. Lily stood in a corridor to his left, her hand on the wall, looking concerned.

"Hey, Lils." He replied, his voice a whisper of non-use. She left her place against that wall and came to join him in his walk. Truthfully, Sirius was a little nervous to have Lily walk with him. She always had the ability to make him talk, when nothing and no one else could. Kind and sweet all the way to the core, he supposed he always knew she would seek him out eventually. He wasn't quite as sure about talking with her; she had the uncanny skill of knowing exactly what was going on in your mind, which happened to be the very reason he had been avoiding everyone thus far. Lily didn't say anything to him, seemingly waiting for him to make the first move.

"So…" he began awkwardly. Lily clasped her hands together behind her back and smiled encouragingly up at him. "How are things?"

"Evangeline is awake; well, she was when I left the Hospital Wing."

"A-Ah." Sirius managed to tremble out. His heart suddenly began to thump wildly in his chest.

"She asked after you." Sirius stopped quite suddenly, breathing hard.

"D-d-did she?" _Why couldn't he talk straight?_

"Yes. We haven't told her about Harmony yet." Sirius threw a glance over in Lily's direction. She was facing him full on with a determined expression on her face. He looked away again just as quickly.

"Why?" He ran his fingers along the smooth stone of the castle walls.

"Would _you_ tell her?" He dropped his hands back to his sides.

"No." he replied firmly. He wouldn't tell her.

"You love her." Sirius exhaled sharply. "You don't have to answer that Sirius, I already know the answer."

"Then why did you ask?" he snapped.

"I didn't. I just wanted to make sure that you knew it." Sirius scoffed at her, but continued to avoid her piercing emerald eyes. "Listen," she said in a softer tone, placing her hand on Sirius' upper arm. He stiffened and looked over his shoulder sharply. "I understand, you're frightened; terrified probably. You don't have to admit it to me, or James or anyone, but I know you. Just don't let it consume you; You have to confront it, and face it head on." He sighed. Did she _always_ have to be so perceptive? He was thankfully spared having to come up with some sort of reply because Lily turned and started back, most likely, to the hospital wing. Sirius stayed firmly rooted to his position next to the wall, attempting to collect his thoughts.

"You ought to go and see her nonetheless, Sirius." He heard Lily say from somewhere behind him. "Before the term starts."

But Sirius did not go and see her; he couldn't bring himself to do it, and cursed himself for being such a coward. Instead, he spent the next innumerable hours walking aimlessly through the castle, ignoring the increasing darkness.


End file.
